Inheriting the Will of Fire
by AdamCV02
Summary: New Problems, Enemies and Romances arise in The Village of Dancing Leaves. The enemies of the Fourth Shinobi World War are long gone, but conflict may not be as over as it seems. Bolt and Sarada will strive to learn more about their fathers' pasts, growing closer together as a result. Naruto struggles to balance family life and work and a new threat may lie just on the horizon.
1. Father & Son

Naruto was fast asleep at his desk, his face planted on a mountain of paperwork. Mission reports, requests, and all sorts of other important documents littered his office. It was about midday, and the new Hokage had been at work for about 8 hours already, but had only managed to put a small dent in his workload. It wasn't that it was an abnormally large workload; his predecessor could have had it all done in only 3 hours. Naruto on the other hand, had a much more difficult time staying focused on his work for a prolonged period of time.

The 7th Hokage was awoken from his midday nap by a slamming door as his advisor, Shikamaru stormed into his office to find Naruto asleep at his desk, his drool making a decent sized pool on the wood.

"What a drag" the advisor sighed while searching the room "did you at least get to that S-Rank report I asked you to look at?"

"hmm... What" Naruto was rubbing his eyes while reminiscing about the dream he had just had. Hinata had snuck into the office and... Just the thought of it made him blush.

Shikamaru leaned over the desk and pulled a purple scroll out from under the Hokage's arm. He held the scroll in his hand, before realizing it was quite possible that Naruto had done the paperwork wrong.

"Do I have permission to?" Only the Hokage and the Anbu were technically allowed to open S-Class documents without consent.

Naruto just waved his hand as he stood up from his desk. He turned and looked out the window, which overlooked the rest of the village.

"This is" Shikamaru was shaking his head, "Not good"

"I assigned 2 Anbu squads to look deeper into it" Naruto paused before turning back to his advisor. "Maybe I should assign more?"

"No" the advisor was re-sealing the scroll "Any more would probably attract too much attention"

"Right" Naruto looked over his office at the mountain of mission reports and assignments still ahead of him.

"How many did you do?" Shikamaru was observing the Hokage's other work.

"All the A through B ranks are done" Naruto sighed.

"Udon and Moegi can do the rest than" Shikamaru realized that If Naruto did the rest; they'd most likely come out wrong. Besides, the Hokage didn't really need to overlook every Genin report about picking up trash or helping old ladies with their groceries.

"Okay" The Hokage felt guilty about pushing the work on to his friends, but there was no way he could pull it all off.

"Well if you don't need me, I have some other obligation to attend to" Shikamaru's toned shifted to being much more annoyed.

"Oh?"

"If I bail out on another Ino-Shika-Cho training session, Ino will probably kill me" the advisor began to make his way out the door. "Maybe you should go spend some time with Bolt as well, I'd prefer it if we didn't have to clean the stone faces every time some diplomats showed up."

Naruto chuckled at this, thinking back to when he used to pull the same pranks. "Right"

* * *

"During the Third Shinobi World War, many Leaf ninja attained recognition for their efforts. Lord Fourth earned the title of the "Yellow Flash" for his proficiency with the Flying Rajin Jutsu, and Lord Sixth became known and the "Copy Ninja" for his ability to steal and replicate enemy jutsu with his Sharingan. The war itself pitted Konoha against-"

"BOLT!" The blonde haired boy, who was currently sleeping in his seat, with his head leaning against the window, had distracted Shino from his less that thrilling lesson.

"Yea?" Bolt was trying to pretend as if he hadn't been asleep the entire time.

"Who was acclaimed as "Konoha's Yellow Flash", after-" Shino was cut off by Bolt's answer.

"Grandpa Minato" Bolt responded, completely annoyed that he had been woken up for that. Hokage sucked anyways.

Shino had been caught, he expected Bolt to not know the answer immediately, but it occurred to him that Naruto had probably drilled that into his son's head. Not wanting to be embarrassed in front of his students, the Instructor persisted.

"Who was the "Copy Ninja" who-"

"Uncle Kakashi" These Hokage based question were seriously getting on Bolt's nerves at this point.

Shino realized Bolt could probably answer all the Hokage based questions with ease. So he decided he would trip him up, Bolt had been asleep, so it wasn't like he knew what Shino had covered.

"Who was responsible for ending the Akatsuki invasion of the Leaf, and saving the life of every person in the village prior to the start of the 4th Shinobi World War?" Shino figured one thing out, Naruto wasn't the kind of guy who would've told his son about his own accomplishments.

"Uh..." Bolt was thoroughly stumped; his father had never forced him to learn this.

"Anyone else?" Shino looked around the room, waiting for a hand to rise

"Lord Seventh, obviously" Sarada Uchiha had her right hand raised and was using her left to push up her glasses. She looked over at Bolt, almost shocked. How could he not know about what his own father had done? Then again, she wasn't entirely clear on her father's history either.

"What title did he earn after this feat?"

"Afterwards, people in the village called him as..." She stopped for a second, not because she didn't know the answer, but because she had turned to Bolt so she could gage his reaction "The Hero of the Hidden Leaf"

Bolt's seemed shocked by the revelation, but was quickly able to compose himself. He knew his father was respected in the village, and he knew he had protected it in the past. However, he had never really known the grandeur of his own father's accomplishments. He felt a sense of pride welling up inside him, that he tried to quell immediately.

"Hokages suck" Bolt mumbled to himself.

Shino was about to continue with this lesson when he felt a gust of wind, and a familiar chakra enter the room. A split second later, there was a small note on his podium and Bolt had vanished from his seat. The entire classroom was in shock; some of the girls were even swooning, believing that Bolt had made himself vanish.

"Bolt-kun is sooo cool" A girl in the back on the room proclaimed to her friends.

"I knooow" a large amount of giggling was heard in the back of the room as the gossip continued.

Sarada Uchiha, for her part, was completely aware of what had just happened and couldn't help but scoff at the girls behind her. They might almost be stupider than the boys they talk about.

Inojin raised his hand from the front of the room "Aburame-Sensei, where did Bolt go?"

Shino was currently reading the note that had been left on his podium, to himself.

_Sorry for the intrusion Shino,  
but is it okay if I take Bolt out for a little while?  
I'm gonna take him out for ramen, I'll bring him back  
later_

_-Naruto_

The note had a header bearing the words "From the desk of Naruto Uzumaki: Nanadaime Hokage" Shino just shook his head; this was exactly the kind of thing Naruto would do.

"Alright class, let's get back to the lesson" Shino turned back to the chalkboard, and began to write out the class assignment.

* * *

Bolt's head was spinning, one second he was listening to Aburame-Sensei's boring lecture and stupid questions and the next he was standing outside the academy with his dad's hand on his head.

"Did you… teleport me out of class? The bolt was surprised; it was unusual for his father to spend any time with him, let alone pull him out of class to do so.

"Wanna get some ramen for lunch?" Naruto had begun to walk in the direction of Ichiraku, beckoning his son to follow him.

They walked alongside each other for a couple of minutes, Bolt noticed that villagers stopped and bowed at his father as they were walking by. He had never actually seen this before, His father always-just teleported to where he needed to be. The young Uzumaki thought back to what he had learned in class about his father. After they had gotten to Ichiraku and placed their orders, Bolt decided to ask about it.

"Hey Dad?" the young blonde looked up at his father, who was currently slurping down a bowl of ramen in its entirety.

"What's up" Naruto looked over to his son, who had been oddly quiet since he picked him up

"Is it true that" Bolt paused, he wasn't used to giving his father so much credit. "You defeated the Akatsuki and saved all the villagers by yourself?"

The Hokage took awhile to respond, he had never told his son about his own accomplishments partly because he didn't want him to be intimidated, and feel like he would never be able to live up to his father's name.

"Not entirely, " Naruto paused. "There's a bit more to the story"

"Can you tell me?" Bolt was now intensely curious, he really didn't know much about his own father when he really thought about it.

Naruto looked around the room cautiously, realizing this was the best place to recount the story.

"Not now." Naruto placed his hand on this son's head "I'll tell you tonight, okay?"

Bolt was disappointed, but agreed nonetheless.

"Alright." Naruto smiled "I'm gonna drop you back off at class now"

"Do you have to!?" Bolt wasn't protesting so much about going back to class as he was about his dad going back to work.

"Yes Bolt" Naruto sighed, why did he always have to be this way

"You should teach me that justu you used to get me out of class" Bolt grinned.

"Why so you can ditch class whenever you want?" Naruto thought about when he would ditch class on Iruka-Sensei, and how much easier it would have been if he could just teleport out.

"But-" Bolt received a hit to the head.

* * *

"Dad!" Bolt screamed "That hurt" The blonde immediately paused; he had already been teleported back into the classroom.

"Welcome back, Bolt" Shino smiled before continuing his lesson.

Bolt fell back asleep with a matter of minutes.


	2. The 1st Exam

**Please review/comment :) It's the only way my sub sub-par writing can turn into sub-par writing.**

**Is Bolt really as "stupid" as Sarada would like to think?**

* * *

"Okay boys and girls, class is over for today" Shino turned to face the class "Be sure to practice for your target test tomorrow, it's the first part of your Graduation Exam"

Bolt got up from his seat and made his way over to the door. The young blonde decided he would kill time walking around the village while he waited for his father to return home, hell... He might even actually do his homework.

* * *

Naruto sat at his desk, flipping a kunai knife in his hand out of boredom. All the paperwork he had been required to finish was already completed by Udon and Moegi while he was on his lunch break. The Hokage thought about what he would tell Bolt, his son's inquiry had surprised him, and he wasn't sure exactly how to answer it. Was Bolt really ready to hear about that? Probably not. He couldn't just shoot him down though, he had to tell him something.

"Lord Seventh" Udon had entered the room.

"Hm?" Naruto dropped the Kunai by accident, it lodged itself 2 inches into his desk. _Dammit_ He cursed to himself

"You have a visitor" Udon stepped out of the doorway, bowing in the process.

The Chief Academy Instructor, Shino Aburame, entered the room with nine scrolls in his hands. He approached Naruto's desk to drop off the documents.

"These are my recommendations for the rookie Genin teams, provided they pass all the exams" Shino placed the scrolls down on the desk.

"Which one is...?" Naruto waived his hand over the scrolls

"Team 5" Shino pointed to the scroll with the number 5 painted on the side.

Naruto opened the scroll, he was curious to see who had been recommended as his son's teammates.

_Team Five_

_Jonin Instructor: Sarutobi, Konohamaru_

_Uzumaki, Bolt_

_Uchiha, Sarada_

_Rock, Guy_

"Bushy-brows the third?" Naruto chuckled to himself, he knew Lee respected Guy-Sensei highly, but he had never expected him to name his own kid after him. He reached over to the next team.

_Team Six_

_Jonin Instructor: Sarutobi, Mirai_

_Nara, Shikadai_

_Yamanaka, Inojin_

_Akamichi, Chocho_

"That's to be expected" Naruto looked up to Shino, who nodded in response. The Hokage looked over the rest of the teams one by one.

"Of course, the last say rests with you" The instructor informed Naruto after he had finished his inspection.

"No, these seem good" Naruto pulled a stamp out from his desk drawer and used it to approve the nine team's formations, he then resealed the scrolls and returned them to Shino. "So, do you think they'll all pass?"

"Most likely" Shino smiled slightly, not that anyone could see under his face mask.

"Thanks" Naruto pulled he Kunai out of his desk, and continued to flip it.

* * *

Sarada had been following Bolt for over two hours, he had been all over the village, and it was becoming exhausting to keep track of him. Not that she had to, of course, but it wasn't like she had anything better to be doing. Now, he was standing in the 3rd Training Ground, and she was hiding in a tree close by. There were ten targets set up, so academy students could practice for the first exam. A group of girls was currently trying to bullseye at least 6 of them, which was the minimum required to pass. They stopped when Bolt approached them.

"Bolt-kun!" one of the more annoying girls yelled in his direction "Do you wanna practice with us?"

The young blonde was standing in front of the group with his hands resting in his pockets, and a relatively sad look on his face. Sarada wondered to herself how he could be so depressed when he was receiving so much attention. Granted, those girls were stupid, but so wasn't he.

Bolt shrugged his shoulders and picked up ten kunai, he then made his way to the center of the ten targets, which were set up in a circle. Sarada watched keenly, she had never seen Bolt practice at anything before and she almost wondered if he even knew how to throw a kunai. However, there was something odd, he didn't seem nervous... he seemed bored and apathetic to the whole situation. One second later, he had hit all the targets dead center and was making his way out of the target area.

"Bolt-kun!" one of the girls was waving "that was awesome... do you think you could help me next?"

Sarada was getting intensely annoyed. It wasn't even that hard! He couldn't be so stupid as to actually help them, could he?

"I guess" Bolt shrugged his shoulders "But it's not somethin-"

The girl had grabbed his hand and was currently dragging him back to the center of the practice ring. Sarada for her part, was currently infuriated. Why were boys so stupid!? Without noticing it, she was already making her way down from the tree and onto the practice field.

"Mind if I try?" She looked over the group while subconsciously pushing her glasses up.

One of the girls in the group gave her a dirty look as if she was some sort of intruder to their stupidity festival.

"Sure" Bolt exited the circle, allowing Sarada to enter.

The young Uchiha was sure she could hit every target, but she almost felt the urge not to, before realizing that would mean she would lose to Bolt... which was absolutely not going to happen. She was sure to hit every last target. As she was walking away, she caught the young-blonde say something.

"Betcha can't do it twice" He was grinning from ear to ear, as he reentered the target range and hit every bullseye again.

_You__'re on _She thought to herself, she wasn't about to lose to some stupid boy.

The two continued to switch off, each hitting every bullseye ten times, and then fifteen. It had become a competition to see who would mess up first. Much to the young brunette's pleasure, the other girls had gotten bored and left a long time ago. Not that she cared or wanted it, but all of Bolt's attention was focused on her now.

They continued their competition until Bolt had finally missed one target, during the 22nd round. It was about 6:00 by then.

"I lost" Bolt returned his hands to his pockets, and the excited demeanor he had during the tournament had subsided back to his sadder one from earlier. He began to walk home. Sarada of course followed him, but this time she remained in sight. They didn't talk the entire time, but the young-Uchiha noticed that Bolt had taken a route that lead by her house, even though he could've taken a much shorter route home. Was he walking her home? Or was he just too stupid to realize? She found out soon enough when they got to her house.

"Bye Sarada" the young blonde paused for a moment before turning around "We should do that again sometime, it was fun" he was smiling.

"Ye... Yea" The brunette was internally chastising herself for becoming so flustered. She walked inside her house.

Once the door was closed and Bolt effectively out of earshot, she looked towards her mother, who was currently cooking dinner. "Boys are... really stupid"

Sakura simply shook her head "Let me guess..."

* * *

Bolt walked through the doorway to a very concerned mother, who was worried as towards why he was so late coming home.

"Bolt, why are you home so late?" Hinata sounded concerned and annoyed at the same time

"I was practicing for my first exam tomorrow" This was kind of a lie, he wouldn't have been out so late if he hadn't gotten himself caught up in the competition with Sarada. He wasn't sure why he felt the urge to challenge her all of a sudden. Although, he had to admit, it was much more fun that the last prank he pulled.

"Oh... well, dinner's on the table, hurry up before it gets cold" His mother pointed to the bowl of rice on the table.

"Do you know when dad will be home?" Bolt questioned as he took his seat at the table.

"Maybe soon" His mother stopped "He was busy today."

The young Uzumaki thought about telling his mother about how his dad had pulled him out of class for lunch, but he liked the idea of it being between the two of them. Plus, if she found out, it would probably never happen again. Once he had finished his dinner, Bolt went up to his room. He laid down on his bed, and tossed Shuriken at the target board hanging on the wall. He wasn't supposed to practice in the house, but it wasn't like he was going to miss or anything. He thought about the competition from earlier, he had missed that last target on purpose and let Sarada win, not because he wanted her to win, but because it could've gone on all night with no winner. Bolt eventually ran out of Shuriken to throw at the wall, so he just laid there until he heard his father walking up the stairs.

Naruto always checked in on his kids before going to bed, no matter how late he managed to come home. Knowing this, Bolt didn't bother to get out of bed, he just waited for his door to open.

"Bolt, why are you still up?" his dad had poked his head through the door "It's almost 11:00 and you-"

"You said you tell me about when you saved the village" Bolt was looking directly at his father now, who seemed extremely tired.

Naruto sighed "I have to tell you something else first" He smiled at his son.

"What?" Bolt didn't like the sound of this, it already felt like he was going to get some dumb kids' story. He watched his father enter his room and sit down at the end of his bed.

"We have to start to the story at the beginning" Naruto looked down at his son "You're about to be a Genin right? How about I tell you about my first real mission?"

"Okay" It wasn't what Bolt had wanted, but it was something.

For the next hour, Naruto recounted to his son, his entire adventure to the Land of Waves. Bolt listened intently to the story of Tazuna, Inari, Zabuza and Haku. It was the first time his father had actually shared anything about his own past with him.

"Wait? Uncle Kakashi actually got captured?" Bolt was beyond surprised.

"Heh... yea" Naruto was looking up to the ceiling, he had moved onto the floor and was using Bolt's bed as a backrest. "and Sasuke and I saved em'"

"Whoa" Bolt was in awe "So, what happened after the bridge was finished?"

"Our job was done, they were all safe, so we returned home and got ready for the Chunnin Exams"

"Can you tell me about that?" Bolt was overly eager by now, he wanted to know more.

"Maybe some other time" His father's voice was trailing off "Is it alright if I... sleep right here, I'm a little beat" Naruto was falling asleep on the floor next to his son's bed, it was about 12:30 AM.

Bolt smirked "Sure dad" He reached over and shut off the lights.

"Thanks" They were both asleep in a matter of minutes.

* * *

Naruto was awoken at around 5:30 to his beautiful wife kicking him in the side. He had fallen asleep on Bolt's floor, and it hadn't been the most restful sleep in the world.

"What's up?" He looked up to a slightly upset Hinata, she didn't like to sleep alone, and he knew that.

She giggled a little "We made our son's floor our new bed?" she whispered softly, attempting not to wake Bolt.

"It was story time" the Hokage paused to kiss his wife "I got a little tired"

"I didn't want to wake you, but Shikamaru sent a messenger over, He needs you at the office" She had developed a more empathetic tone.

The Hokage breathed in deeply and exhaled "At least I'm still dressed for it" He began to make his way out the door, before his wife came up behind him and whispered in his ear.

"If you can get home a little earlier tonight" She paused for the effect "I might be able to make it worth it"

Naruto was grinning widely "That could be dangerous"

"I know" She winked at him

"We'll have to find out" Naruto quipped before he finally teleported to his office.

* * *

Shikamaru was sitting in one of the chairs, across from the Hokage's desk. On the chair beside him, in a scroll, there was a message marked "URGENT: TOP SECRET" from the Village Hidden in the Mist. The dark-haired advisor wasn't sure what it contained, but it was covered with a strong sealing jutsu, and only Naruto knew the key to it.

"What's wrong?" The Hokage had appeared in his chair, seeming half-asleep at best.

"Here" Shikamaru tossed the scroll over to Naruto

"Hm... This is" Naruto placed the scroll down on the desk, and began to preform hand seals, reciting them outloud as he went. "Mi Ne Saru Ushi Ne I Inu Mi Tora Hitsuji U Tori Tora"He placed both his hands over the scroll, carefully releasing the exact amount of chakra required. The scroll folded open and Naruto read it outload.

"Immediate Response Required

While on route to the Land of Fire, it is believed that  
The Feudal Lord of the Land of Water was captured while his  
ship was traversing the waters surrounding the Land of Waves.  
I request any assistance possible in this matter. It is of the utmost  
Importance, we must locate him.

Chojuro: Rokudaime Mizukage"

The Hokage was shaking his head as he finished.

"Could it be the same..." Shikamaru was hoping it didn't have anything to do with the S-Class report from the other day. Unfortunately, he had a sneaking suspicion that it did. This wasn't good.

"Most likely" Naruto turned to face out his office window. "Send Squad 12 to assist the Mizukage" He paused for a moment "and, send an ANBU Unit to tail the Fire Daimyo... just in case."

"Which ANBU Unit?"

"Three" the Hokage turned back to his advisor "They should be able to hide their presence from the 12 Gaurdians... also, give them a teleporting knife" Naruto reached into his draw and pulled out a Kunai with the Flying Rajin mark embossed on the side. He tossed it to Shikamaru.

"Are you sure?" if the knife was thrown, Naruto would be automatically be teleported to the team. "What if...?"

"That knife is set to send a clone, unlike the others." The Hokage was pointing to a marking on the back on the knife. "If it gets knocked out, I'll know what's happening"

"Right" Shikimaru was still unsure, currently only a few people in the entire village had one of the knives he was holding. Himself, Hinata, Sakura, Konohamaru, a few guard captains, Kakashi, and Shino. Granted, their Knives wouldn't teleport just a clone, they'd teleport Naruto himself.

"Anything else I should be worried about?" Naruto had sat back down at his chair, and was looking over the stack of new mission requests.

"Not at the moment..." The advisor sighed. "It doesn't get much worse than this.

"Let's just hope the Mizukage can find him" Naruto's hands were buried in his face while he spoke.

"What a drag this all is" Shikamaru collected the documents he needed, and exited the office to deliver the assignments to the teams.

* * *

Bolt was sitting in the classroom, watching the clock. His father had been gone by the time he had gotten up for school. Currently, he was waiting to be called into the testing room for the 1st Exam. Being at the end of the alphabet, kinda sucked. Chocho had just been called in, so it was going to take a while for it to be his turn. _I wonder what kind of prank I can pull in here, _the young Uzumaki thought to himself as he looked around the room.

"Hey Shikadai!" Bolt looked towards the young Nara in the corner of the room "We should flip all the chairs-"

"That's troublesome, do you really wanna get in trouble the day of an exam Bolt?" Shikadai was shaking his head.

"Inojin?" Bolt turned his attention to the pale blonde, who was reading from a scroll

"Nope"

"You're all no fun" Bolt slumped down into his chair and kept focusing on the clock.

An interesting conversation was beginning in the front of the room however.

"What do you think our first real ninja mission could be!?" Rock Guy was asking, rather loudly and excitedly, to the girl sitting next to him.

"I'm sure it will be something easy, we're only going to be Genin" The girl stated, matter of factly, nearly killing young-Guy's mood.

"My dad said his first real mission was to protect some merchant from a bunch of thieves" Guy proclaimed. He then turned to the back of the room as to question everyone else. Bushy-brows III set his eyes on Shikadai first.

"Delivering a trading document to a small village" The young Nara shrugged, it wasn't all that interesting.

Guy then set his eyes on Sarada, who currently had her eyes buried in a book. "Sarada?" The brunette looked up for a moment.

"I don't know" There was a trail of sadness in her voice, before she returned to reading.

Guy seemed a bit shocked, he turned towards Bolt next.

"Wait" Bolt looked over to the girl in glasses "you don't know?"

"You do?" She asked incredulously.

Bolt smiled and laughed a bit as he responded, thinking about the story his father had shared with him the night before. "Yep!" He moved over towards the girl he had been competing with yesterday. "Wanna know?"

"Yea" She was smiling, Bolt almost never saw that, it was really a rarity. Sarada normally kept to herself, and rarely talked to anyone. It had actually surprised him that she even bothered to practice with him last night, although she might just have hated the idea of losing to him. Usually she would have just called him stupid.

A small circle had formed around the two of them, all of their classmates eager to hear the story of the Hokage's first mission. Bolt began to recount the story slowly, careful to recount every last detail just as his father had done for him. By the time he had gotten to the end, everyone but him and Sarada had already left to take their exam.

"That can't be true!" The brunette was laughing, actually laughing! Bolt, for some reason, was quite pleased with himself.

"It is!" Bolt was laughing too at this point "My dad told me it himself!"

"Your dad really ran headfirst into an enemy jutsu?" She asked, referring to Naruto's attempt to help Sasuke by sneaking into Haku's Ice Mirrors.

"I guess so" Bolt scratched his head, a little embarrassed.

"What did my mom do?"

"I guess she guarded that Tazuna guy"

* * *

Sarada had lost all her restraint. She was actually having a conversation with Bolt! A stupid, annoying Boy! The young Uchiha was trying to hide it, but she was actually enjoying herself. Neither of her parents had ever told her about their pasts, especially not her father, even when he was around. She had a hard time imagining that her mother hadn't been the hero of the mission, the woman nearly broke the kitchen counter with a meat mallet once. Sarada was fighting the urge to ask more, however, she refused to let her curiosity get the better of her. Bolt was stupid, and it was stupid to be talking to him. No matter how much she felt the urge to.

Aburame-Sensei stuck his head through the door. "Uzumaki Bolt, next" The blonde boy rose from his seat and walked out of the classroom, he waved to her as he exited.

The young-Uchiha was lost in her thoughts for the next couple of minutes. She thought about the story Bolt had just told her, and how he had been smiling the whole time. It was the same kind of smile he had the night before, when she had stupidly competed with him for over three hours. She hated to admit it, but that had been a little fun.

"Uchiha Sarada" Aburame-Sensei was back for the last time.

Sarada walked outside onto the training field, and into the center of the ten targets. She noticed that targets 1-6 were mostly destroyed due to heavy usage, while there was only one mark on target 10. She figured Bolt had been the only one to hit it. The brunette faced towards her first target and hit the bullseye perfectly, she immediately pivoted and hit the second, then the third and fourth in the same manner. She made it all the way to target number 10, but she had misjudged the wind slightly and hit off center. Bolt was snickering from the bleachers, he really was stupid, did he not realize he had done the same exact thing yesterday?

Sarada walked over, and took her seat on the stands where all the other students who had passed were seated, she did notice a few missing however.

"Congratulations, on passing the 1st Exam." Aburame-Sensei announced to the entire class "Your Ninjutsu and Sparring Exams will take place tomorrow, all who pass will officially become Genin."

"What happens after that?" Guy asked from the front row.

"You'll be paired with two other classmates and assigned a Jonin Instructor"

Sarada hoped, or rather prayed she wouldn't be stuck on a team with Bolt. He could just be so stupid sometimes, and she wasn't sure she could handle it.


	3. Teamwork & Love

"Okay boys and girls, you're dismissed for today" Aburame-Sensei announced to the students sitting in the bleachers. Bolt got up and headed for the front exit, where many student's parents were waiting to pick them up for some last minute training. Of course, no one was going to be around for him, his mother had to take care of Himawari and his father was busy with work. Bolt stood in front of the Academy, and watched each of his friends leave with someone.

"Guy!" Lee was running towards his son "the power of youth must bloom!" He pointed towards the village and decided "we'll run 300 laps!" and ran off, Guy followed close behind.

"Let's go Shikadai" Temari sounded annoyed "Your father is waiting"

"You too Chocho" Karui was standing close to Temari, pointing at her daughter.

"Inojin, we have to hurry" Sai was beckoning his son over to him.

Bolt waited until the entire courtyard had cleared, for some reason, he held onto the hope that someone would show up. He heard the Academy door open up behind him and Sarada walked up beside him.

"No one's coming for us" the brunette was pushing her glasses up towards her face.

Bolt stuck his hands into his pockets. "Your mom might come" the blonde shrugged his shoulders.

"She'll be at the hospital all night, and my dad is... Well, you know" Bolt looked over to her, she just seemed so sad.

"Seems like you two have a dilemma then" A white haired man, who had suddenly appeared near the Academy gate, stated. Bolt could hear the ringing of bells.

"Who are- you?" Bolt wasn't sure at first, however once the man had stepped out of the shadows, it became much clearer.

"Just passing by" The man smiled from under his mask.

"Uncle Kakashi?" Bolt was beyond shocked, he hadn't seen him in at least a year.

"Lord Sixth?" Sarada questioned.

"You two..." Kakashi was now walking towards them. "are the spitting image of your fathers"

Bolt felt a sudden rush of pride fill him, as Kakashi placed his hands on both of their heads.

"How about you train with me?" The former Hokage proposed to them.

"Wait, really!?" Bolt was excited now, he rarely ever got trained by anyone, he always had to do it himself.

"But you're..." Sarada was protesting "kind of old"

"I trained your parents didn't I?" Kakashi seemed slightly offended by Sarada's remarks.

"C'mon Sarada! This is awesome!"

"Haha" A man in a wheelchair had rolled up next to the former Hokage "So this is the new YOUTH!"

"So there you are, Guy" Kakashi turned to look at the Blue-beast.

_G-Guy _Bolt immediately thought of his classmate.

"So then" Kakashi began walking to the center of the training court, on the side of the Academy Building. "All you two have to do... Is get these two bells from me" the former Hokage was holding two silver bells out in front of him.

"That's it?" Bolt snickered, how was this, old man gonna stop him from just taking them?

"It won't be that easy" Sarada was quick to note "He was Hokage for a reason"

"Let's begin, come at me with every intention of ending my life" Kakashi extended his right hand, and waved, inviting them to attack.

* * *

The former Copy-ninja was reminiscing about his old team, as Bolt charged towards him. _Like father, like __son, _he chuckled to himself. One swift kick to Bolt's shoulder sent the blonde flying into the fence at the end of the court. Kakashi turned back to see a barrage of Kunai flying directly towards him, he evaded it by jumping out of the way.

"That's all you two have got?" Kakashi taunted as Bolt made another charge towards him, this time with one of the Kunai Sarada had thrown in his hand, the former Hokage blocked in with his own knife. What he hadn't expected was the blonde to grab his wrist with the opposite hand, and use it as a pivot to aim a kick at his head. Kakashi ducked in time, but he felt Bolt push off his back and wondered why he was fleeing. He then looked up to see the young-Uchiha forming hand seals.

"Fire-Style Fireball Jutsu" Sarada announced as she moved her hand up to her mouth, forming a circle around her lips. Seconds later a ball of fire was barreling towards Kakashi. He was actually impressed at the level of teamwork they were displaying. Bolt had attacked him head on twice, giving his partner time to prepare her attacks while he distracted their opponent. Furthermore, the blonde had gaged perfectly when he should disengage to allow Sarada the best chance of hitting her target. Kakashi knew he could dodge it, but he felt like showing off a little, he couldn't have these kids thinking he was some old slouch.

_Tora Mi Ne Mi Tora _Kakashi formed the seals necessary to defend himself. _Water Style: Water Wall. _A giant plume of steam arose as the fire and water clashed, covering the training court.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" The former copy-ninja heard Bolt shout from about twenty different places at once. _So he can use his father's shadow clones? _The old ninja mused to himself. Seconds later, five copies of Bolt began to attack him simultaneously. _He's using the cover of the smoke to ambush me? _Kakashi wondered what Sarada's next move would be, as he dispatched Bolt's clones one by one. By the time the smoke had cleared, he could see the two standing next to each other.

Bolt was breathing heavily "He's... strong"

"Of course he is, it would be impossible for us to beat him" She really was just like her father, and maybe a little like her mother as well.

"That's not the power of YOUTH!" Guy was cheering from the sidelines "Both of you attack him at the same time!"

* * *

Naruto was sitting in his office looking over a request to find the Feudal Lady's cat, for the sixth time this month, when Moegi walked into his office bearing a slight grin.

"What's up" The Hokage looked up from his paperwork.

"You might want to see this, Lord Hokage" She was walking back out the door, guiding him to follow.

Naruto wondered what on earth could possibly be happening now, as he was guided down the hallway and into the Jonin standby area. Moegi walked over to the window, and opened the blinds that covered the window overlooking the Academy. Naruto looked down onto the training court to find Bolt and... Kakashi-Sensei?

"Is that?" The Hokage was having a hard time controlling his laughter as he watched Bolt and Sarada continuously attacking his aging predecessor.

"Lord Sixth" Moegi smiled "Yes" She began to walk out of the room.

"Thanks..." Naruto paused, feeling himself getting a little choked up over both the nostalgia of the moment and the fact that his son was really growing up "for showing me this"

"Of... of course My Lord" Moegi bowed and left the room.

Naurto took a seat in front of the window, and watched the fight unfold. He watched as Bolt conjured up more shadow-clones to his aid, and thought back to when he taught his son that technique. The next generation was growing up so fast. The Hokage watched as both Sarada and Bolt struggled to get anywhere close to the bells clipped to his Sensei's waist. The fight lasted another good hour until the two kids were close to exhaustion, having expended almost all of their chakra. Naruto decided to teleport down and congratulate his son on a good effort.

A second later, Naruto was on the training court. He caught Bolt as he was beginning to fall over.

"Hey dad" the young kid whispered, he really had been beaten, but Naruto could've sworn that was the happiest he had ever seen the kid.

"Lord Seven-" Kakashi caught Sarada who was also about to fall over.

"Maybe you went a little overboard, Kakashi-Sensei" Naruto looked over to his former teacher, and smirked at him.

"I fear I'm a bit too old for this" Kakashi admitted "Honestly, a couple more years and I might not have made it" The old man chuckled

"You have gotten old, Kakashi!" Guy rolled up in his wheelchair.

"Well, I'll take this one home" Kakashi picked up Sarada, and placed her on his back.

"Be careful, Sakura just might kill you" Naruto advised his predecessor jokingly.

"I'll be be careful" Kakashi laughed as he began to push Guy's wheelchair towards Sakura and Sasuke's house.

Naruto nodded to his old teacher, before teleporting back to his own home, he wondered if he would be early enough for Hinata.

* * *

Sakura was currently in the middle of preparing dinner when she heard a knock on her door, her daughter never knocked, so she wondered who her visitor was. The kunoichi found out once she opened her door to a familiar masked face.

"Ka-Kakashi-Sensei" It wasn't everyday her former teacher stopped by for a visit, however, why was he carrying Sarada on his shoulders? "What happened!?"

"We did a little bell training" The white-haired man explained as he rested the young girl down on the couch. "They really are... Just like their fathers"

"Yea... They are" Sakura was looking down at her daughter as she thought about her time on Team 7, and about how much Bolt are Sarada really were like Naruto and Sasuke.

"Sorry if I went a little hard on her, but she and Bolt worked really well together" Kakashi smiled "They're going to make a great team"

"Or a very scary one" Sakura was imaging what the offspring of her two insane teammates could get themselves into.

"That too" The former Hokage smiled "The next generation... Will always surpass the one before it", he waved as he walked out the door.

Sakura turned her attention back to her daughter, who was waking up on the couch. She walked over and knelt down on the floor beside her, and began using medical jutsu to seal some of her daughter's minor wounds.

"Boys are-" Sarada was about to say her usual line, when Sakura cut her off.

"Really stupid?"

"Yea" Sarada grinned slightly.

"But you don't mean 'boys' do you?" Sakura paused for a moment, she could read her daughter like an open book "You mean 'boy'"

"Boy?" Sarada looked at her mother with a slightly embarrassed look. There was a slight tint of red on her daughter's cheeks and it hadn't escaped Sakura's notice.

"Bolt" Sakura watched for her daughter's reaction as she casually dropped the name. The blush seemed to intensify, and Sarada turned her head away.

"He's stupid" Sarada exclaimed.

"What's that mean?" Sakura had her daughter right where she wanted her, she was going to express her real feeling and not be like her father who insisted on sharing close to nothing.

"He's annoying" Sarada responded without hesitation. Sakura could feel her daughter's heartbeat rising as she closed up the last of her wounds.

"Why?" Sakura pushed for a real answer again as her daughter sat up, and began to walk to her room.

"Because he is!" the young-Uchiha was getting agitated, Sakura had pushed her close to the edge, she could tell.

_Maybe I should tease her a bit_ The medical-nin thought to herself. "Is it because you think he's cute?" Sakura prompted her daughter, and then prepared for the backlash.

"NO!" Sarada way yelling at this point, but there was no hiding it, her face was as red as a tomato and her glasses were fogging up.

"Okay, okay" Sakura relented for the time being. _You're just like your father! _The kunoichi was raging on the inside as she thought back to all the times she had wanted Sasuke to just share what he was feeling with her, to give her something! She had known he was interested when he returned to the village 3 years after the war, but it took him months to even talk to her! Even Naruto had a better handle on love than he did! Of course, he wasn't like that today. Sakura had broken that man's wall a long time ago. She would make sure her daughter knew about love, that was her responsibility as a mother.

* * *

Naruto had teleported himself home, and brought Bolt up to bed. The poor kid was wiped out, but he had really given it his all, and Naruto was extremely proud of him for it.

"Hey dad?" Bolt looked up to Naruto as he was tucking him in.

"Yes?" The Hokage smiled at his son.

"Uncle Kakashi is super strong" Bolt groaned "everything hurts"

Naruto looked at his son, who was wincing over the beating he had received. He remembered his own bell test, he'd been sore for a few days too.

"He sure is" Naruto nodded, before turning off Bolt's bedroom light "Goodnight"

"Goodnight, Dad"

Naruto shut the door, and immediately rushed to his bedroom, hoping he wasn't home too late.


	4. Becoming a Ninja

Naruto walked into his bedroom, to find his wife reading in bed. He removed his white Hokage cloak and hat and kicked off his shoes before climbing into bed.

"Soo?" Naruto prompted as he kissed his wife on the cheek "am I early enough?"

Hinata smiled and closed her book, before turning towards the Hokage "possibly" she teased while kissing him and placing her hand on his chest.

Naruto was beyond tired, but he had really been looking forward to this all day, the thought of it had actually encouraged him to finish his paperwork. He moaned as Hintata began to rub his shoulders, erasing the weariness he felt. She placed her hands on his shoulders, pushing him down onto the bed as she began to kiss his neck. Unfortunately, a knock sounded from his bedroom door, and his daughter could be heard from the other side.

"Mama?" Himawari sounded upset

"Yes, sweetie?" Hinata answered immediately.

"I had a bad dream"

"Come on in, " Hinata invited their daughter in, before whispering to her husband "I'm sorry" and kissing him on the forehead.

"C-can I sleep in your room tonight?" Himawari was holding a teddy bear that Naruto had bought for her when she was just born.

"Of course" Naruto answered, he was a little bit disappointed at the turn of events, however.

Himawari climbed into bed between Naruto and Hinata and faced her father. Naruto patted her on the head, to assure her that she was safe from any nightmare monsters. Naruto looked across the bed to his wife, who was also facing him and he read her lips.

"Tomorrow night?" She mouthed while smiling at him

_If I make it until then _The Hokage thought to himself as he drifted to sleep.

* * *

Shikadai woke up to the troublesome buzz of an alarm clock on its sixth snooze cycle. He could hear his mother yelling from downstairs.

"Shikadai! Hurry Up!" The woman sounded enraged, then again, she always was.

The young-Nara climbed out of bed and threw on his clothes, with no real care as towards whether or not he had worn them yesterday or not, before heading downstairs. He was surprised to find his father sitting at the table, he usually was at work by now.

"Did you practice for your exams today?" His mother questioned, even though it was obvious he hadn't

"Nope, exams are too much trouble" Shikadai responded, while resting his hands behind his head.

"You get this from your father!" His mother exclaimed while giving Shikamaru a dirty look.

Shikamaru looked up at the clock before speaking "well, look at the time. Best get going" Shikadai watched as his father made a b-line for the door, in an attempt to avoid his mother's rage. "Good luck today!" His father waved as he walked out.

After eating a quick breakfast, Shikadai began his walk to school while thinking over what would happen if he became a Genin. He wasn't sure he actually wanted to be a ninja at all, what was the point? There hadn't been a war in over a decade. He couldn't see any reason why anyone would need him to be a ninja. It all just seemed too troublesome. He figured he would just go through the motions, and see what happened. What could really go wrong?

The young-Nara arrived at the academy to a sign posted on the front door. "All Students participating in the Graduation Exam, report to the practice field." So, he walked to the practice field to find a set of bleachers filled with his classmates... Meaning he was late. He took the only available seat next to Sarada.

"Okay, first we'll do the Ninjutsu Exams" Aburame-Sensei announced "Chocho Akamichi, step forward"

Shikadai watched as Chocho stepped in front of Aburame-Sensei and preformed the Transformation Jutsu and the Clone Justu. Once she had passed, Chocho stood behind Sensei, and a line formed behind the Sensei as more students passed the exam. Almost all of them used the same two jutsu they had been taught at the academy, making the whole process extremely boring to sit through. Shikadai was close to falling asleep, when he was called up.

"Shikadai Nara, step forward" Aburame-Sensei announced while checking names off his clipboard.

The young-Nara decided to preform both the Clone Jutsu and the Transformation Jutsu as well, he could've done a shadow possession or even one of his mom's wind style techniques. But, bringing attention to himself would just cause trouble. He continued to watch as more students were called up, nobody had failed yet.

"Bolt Uzum-"

"ya-ya" The blonde was waving his hand, seeming having grown tired of the routine.

Shikadai watched as Bolt first preformed the Shadow Clone jutsu, effectively showing up the entire class for no reason. Then, the blonde followed it up by transforming all of his clones into exact copies of Aburame-Sensei. This elicited some troublesome responses from the girls of the class.

"Bolt-Kun! That was amazing!" A girl, whose name Shikadai had never bothered to remember, shouted from the stands. What Shikadai hadn't expected to see, was the murderous glare that seemed to emanate from Sarada, who was sitting above the girl on the bleachers. That Uchiha was trouble, and Shikadai made a mental note to avoid her in the future. Then again, all women were trouble... Especially his mother.

Finally, the last student Sarada Uchiha, stepped up to the exam. She preformed a simple clone jutsu, but then followed it up with a Fire-Ball Jutsu that she shot right over Aburame-Sensei's head. This further solidified Shikadai's resolve to avoid her in the future... too much trouble.

After all the Ninjustu tests had been administered, the students were re-seated, so their sparring matches could be called. The first few matches were boring, nobody really won, once it had been proven that they could fight, they passed. Then, Bolt's match was called.

"Bolt Uzumaki vs. Midori Tsubaki" That loud girl from earlier. _So that was her name_ Shikadai thought to himself. He watched as they both took to the center of the sparring circle.

"Bolt-Kun! Please go easy on me!" This was when Shikadai remembered that he had forgotten not to sit next to Sarada again, he looked over to find the Uchiha gripping her skirt in what seemed to be pure anger, with her eyes locked onto the sparring ring. Shikadai watched as the girl threw a punch towards the blonde in the ring, he dodged it without even removing his hands from his pockets. Midori followed up with a kick, which Bolt also dodged, before he stepped behind her and tripped her back leg. Midori fell straight onto her back, Shikadai almost felt bad for her... But she had asked him to go easy on her. The young-Nara noticed that Sarada had calmed down at bit after the conclusion of the match.

"Bolt, you pass" Aburame-Sensei paused "Midori, you'll have to spar in a second match"

"Yes, Sensei" The girl smiled, she blew a kiss at Bolt as he joined the line of those who had passed. Shikadai watched as Sarada gripped the bleacher seat in anger, causing the wood to splinter.

"Next, Shikadai Nara vs. Rock Guy" _You've got to be kidding, out of all the people- _the young-Nara groaned to himself as he made his way down to the field. He stood in the sparring ring and shook hands with his over eager opponent. When Aburame-Sensei signaled the start of the match, Guy send a kick flying towards Shikadai's head. He was able to duck in time and landed a kick in a Guy's rib cage, earning him a punch in the side of the head. The fight lasted for another two minutes before Aburame-Sensei called the match after Shikadai had taken a kick to the stomach.

"That's good" Aburame-Sensei held up his hand "you both pass"

Shikadai took his place in line with the others who had passed, and watched the rest of the matches. All of the matches ended in ties, and all of the were less than spectacular. Until the final match, when Sarada was pitted against Midori. Right before the match started, Midori had turned and winked at Bolt, the second after the match started, Sarada punched the other girl straight in the face sending her rolling backwards. Shikadai watched in fear, as Sarada knocked her opponent around. Midori, seemed to be unwilling to give up... Unlike her last match where she gave up after one hit. Women made absolutely no sense, what purpose could they really serve? Finally, Aburame-Sensei called another tie match, even though it was far from one, Midori's nose was as good as broken. The young-Nara realized at that moment, how thankful he was that there was no chance of him being on the same team as Sarada.

* * *

Bolt stood in line with the other students as Aburame-Sensei turned to address them. The blonde hadn't been paying attention to most of the matches, he was too busy wondering what kinds of mission he might be assigned or what new Jutsu he could learn. However, he did catch the last match between Sarada and Midori, and decided he would be careful not to upset the brunette from that point forward.

"Okay boys and girls, you have all passed!" Aburame-Sensei was holding headbands in his hands. "Congratulations on becoming Genin!"

Bolt watched as the Sensei put a headband on each student in line. When he got to Bolt, Shino did the same, and tied the headband to the blonds's forehead. When he had finally finished with the ceremony, he again stood in front of the class and read of their squad assignments.

"Squad 1" Aburame Sensei flipped a sheet on his clipboard "Midori Tsubaki-" Bolt had stopped listening at this point, he thought instead about what his father's reaction would be to his graduation. He hoped deep down, that he would get some actual recognition now that he was a real ninja. Bolt was dragged from his thoughts when he heard his own name announced.

"Squad 5; Bolt Uzumaki, Sarada Uchiha, Rock Guy" Aburame-Sensei then pointed to the main building "report to room 107". Bolt began to walk towards the building, his teammates following close behind.

"I wonder who our Sensei will be?" Guy asked excitedly to the group.

"Who cares?" Bolt really didn't care, but he had an idea of who it might be.

The three walked in silence the rest of the way, Guy never stopped smiling the entire way and Sarada kept looking down at the ground the entire time. Bolt wondered what she was thinking about, but after watching that fight, he wasn't going to try and bother her about it. The new team sat alone in the room, waiting for the Sensei to arrive. Just when Bolt was about to fall asleep from boredom, the door opened.

"Hi" Konohamaru-Sensei walked into the room, and stood behind the podium.

"It had to be you... Didn't it" Bolt was a little annoyed, why couldn't it have been someone cooler?

"Is there a problem... Bolt?" Konohamaru-Sensei was stressing his name in a very threatening manner, so Bolt decided it was best to lay off.

"No Sensei" The blonde slumped down into his seat in annoyance.

"So then" The Jonin clapped his hands together, "let's introduce ourselves"

"Introduce ourselves?" Sarada questioned from the front of the room, it was the first time she had spoken all day.

"Ya know... Likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses, stuff like that" Konohamaru-Sensei was looking around the room, he paused before speaking again. "Well... I'll go first, then... I like Ramen and Chocolate covered bananas, I dislike annoying students and onions, I'm strong at ninjutsu and weak at genjutsu" He then pointed at Bolt.

"Why me?" The young-Uzumaki really had no interest in sharing.

"Because!" Konohamaru-Sensei yelled.

"Fine!" Bolt took a deep breath, "I like Ramen, and I dislike Hokages! I'm really good at weapons throwing and ninjutsu, but I'm bad at Genjutsu too.

"Next" The Jonin switched his gaze to Guy

"I really like training and running laps, and I dislike people without the power of YOUTH! Also, I'm strong with Taijustu but have no Ninjutsu or Genjustu skills at all" The boy in the green suit stated while scratching the back of his head

"Last" Konohamaru was now looking at Sarada.

The brunette pushed up her glasses and lifted her head "I like reading and I really dislike stupid boys" She lowered her head again, Bolt could tell something was bothering her "and, I'm really good at Ninjutsu and Genjustu but bad at Taijutsu"

"Okay then!" Konohamaru-Sensei has stepped away from the podium "Meet me tomorrow at the Third Training Ground, for your Genin Test"

"But, we already passed the Exam, Sensei!" Guy protested

"Not my Exam! If you don't pass, you go right back to the Academy!" Konohamaru paused and then looked at Sarada, who had her hand raised "and no, you can't study for it and I'm not telling you what it is." Bolt watched as the brunette lowered her hand.

* * *

Sakura was standing outside the Academy waiting for Sarada to come out, when all of a sudden she felt a gust of wind, the next second Naruto was standing next to her.

"You actually managed to get out of the office?" The poor guy looked exhausted, and it was only 3:00 in the afternoon.

"I didn't want to miss this" Her old friend turned to her and smiled.

"Me either, they grow up so fast" The kunochi was shaking her head

"They're on the same squad" Naruto said, while passing her a scroll, with and Uchiha seal on it... Meaning it was a message from Sasuke. Sakura tucked it into her pocket and continued the conversation.

"With?" Sakura was more than pleased, this meant that her daughter would have to face her feelings sooner rather than later. She thought about her own reaction when Sasuke was placed with her on Team 7. She actually felt a little bad for Sarada, the poor girl had no way to express herself, and her crush was most likely as oblivious as his father was to Hinata.

Naruto was laughing "Rock Guy" The Hokage was using his fist to cover his mouth.

"Bushy Brows Jr.!" Sakura was amused, her poor daughter now had to deal not only with being on the same team as the boy she was surely infatuated with, nut also the offspring of the guy who ran around the village 500 times for fun.

"Konohamaru's gonna have his hands full" Naruto was still laughing.

"So... do you know when he's coming back?" Sakura asked, changing the subject to her husband.

"No clue, I was hoping the message would say" The Hokage was staring towards the sky, his hat casting a shadow on his face "I need to call a council meeting soon"

"You mean... One of those meetings?" She was surprised, the last time one was called was when a group of Hidden Rain ninja drifted too close to the border, almost igniting a war. What could it be this time?

"Ya..." Naruto was whispering now, and still looking up towards the sky.

"Don't they make... the Daimyo nervous?" Sakura was concerned about what could drive Naruto to risk provoking him.

"How nervous will he get if he finds out there's a bounty hunting troupe after his head?" The Hokage had turned towards her, and whispered into her ear.

"Did you... take precautions?"

"Two squads... no incidents yet" Naruto sighed.

"Right, well-" Sakura stopped as she saw her daughter walk out of the Academy door, with Bolt walking behind her.

She waved, and Naruto followed suit. The two kids were now running towards them, and Bolt had a little grin on his face that made Sakura understand her daughter's infatuation.

"Dad, what are you doing here?"

"Mama? Shouldn't you be at the Hospital?"

"It's okay, Ino covered for me" Sakura looked down at her daughter, and could sense her uneasiness.

"Well" Naruto had placed his hand on his son's head "How about we all go out for ramen to celebrate!" The Hokage turned and looked at Sakura and her daughter.

"Is it really okay for you to-" Could Naruto really just leave the office for this long, with everything that was going on?

"It'll be alright, Shikamaru always has that thing if it gets bad" He was of course referring to the teleporting knives he had given to Shikamaru and Sakura, along with some other people. In fact, Sakura realized, that was how he had teleported here in the first place... She was carrying it in her weapons pouch as usual.

So, the four went out for an early ramen dinner. Sakura noticed that Sarada would spend a lot of her time watching Bolt, and would look away quickly every time anyone caught her doing it. It was cute, annoying as all hell because she was just like her 'no feelings to be shared' father, but cute too. After they finished dinner, the two parent-child pairings parted ways. Sakura walked home with her daughter, and decided to dig a little deeper.

"So, you're on the same team as Bolt" She was sure to stress the blonde's name

"So?" Sarada was looking down at the ground

"And Guy?"

"Yes" The brunette was pushing up her glasses.

"How do you feel about that?" It wasn't like she could ask directly, how her daughter felt about having her crush as a teammate.

"It's fine" Sarada responded, quickly and quietly.

"Really?" Sakura was a bit surprised, she had expected the word 'stupid' to appear.

"Ya" Sarada had looked up for a second, and Sakura caught a smile, a mile wide, crossing her face.

"Or... Is it more than fine?" The kunochi teased.

"It's Fine" Sarada had started to walk faster, in an attempt to avoid her mother's promptings.

_YOU LITTLE! _Sakura yelled to herself as her daughter moved ahead of her. She wished Sarada would just open up and talk. Sakura wanted a relationship where Sarada would just tell her these things, where she would share what was happening in her life. She envied Naruto a bit in this sense, she knew that no matter how much his son might get annoyed with him... Bolt would still go to his father first when he needed help, Sakura could just tell by the way they interacted. Sarada, on the other hand, kept it all bottled up and wouldn't come to her mother for anything.

* * *

Bolt was elated that his father had come to pick him up after graduation. For the first time, he really felt like he was earning his father's recognition. His Dad had even taken him out to dinner! It was a little uncomfortable with Sarada staring at him for the whole meal, and he really hoped she wasn't mad at him, that could end badly. The blonde recounted the day's events, he had felt bad about knocking Midori down in their match, but it was the easiest way not to hurt her. Then, she got hurt anyway when Sarada fought her, Bolt couldn't understand why his teammate seemed so mad at Midori during their match. The young-Uzumaki laid in his bed as he thought about what he could do as a ninja, where he could go and what adventures he could have. The young-Uzumaki felt an intense feeling of pride emitting from his forehead, where his headband was strapped. So much so in fact, that he slept with it on that night.


	5. New Genin & The Return

**Let the Genin test begin!**

**Chocho is onto Sarada.**

**Please Review :)**

* * *

Bolt woke up earlier than usual the next morning, unable to contain his excitement. He was about to get dressed in his normal attire, when he noticed a new orange and black jumpsuit, under armor, a weapons pouch and sandals hanging up on his door. There was a note pinned to the jumpsuit.

_Good luck, Bolt  
Mom and I are very proud of you._

_Love, Dad_

Bolt put on the fishnet under armor first, it was a little heavy, he then put on the orange jumpsuit. It had two pockets on either side and a zipper in the front. The young-Uzumaki filled his weapons pouch with as many Kunai and Suriken as he could fit. He tucked the note his father had left him in his front pocket. He looked down at his jumpsuit, it was bright orange, with black stripes going down the sleeves, the Uzumaki clan symbol was embroidered on his left sleeve and the Hyuuga symbol on his right. Once he was done admiring his new attire, Bolt made his way downstairs to another surprise at the kitchen table.

"Nice!" His father looked up from the documents he had laid across the table.

"You're still here?" Bolt was surprised, his Dad usually had left for work by now.

"I wanted to see how it looked on you" Naruto was smiling while holding a scroll in his hand.

"Thanks" Bolt thanked his father for the jumpsuit, before turning to his mother who was standing behind the stove "what's for breakfast"

"No breakfast for you" His dad was laughing "your Genin test is today, right?"

"So?" What did that have to do with him eating exactly?

"Probably best you don't eat" Naruto stood up, and patted his son on the head. That remark gave Bolt an uneasy feeling, just how bad was it?

"Why?"

"You'll just end up throwing it up" His father waved as he walked out the door.

"You'll be fine honey" His mom walked over and kissed him on the cheek. "Now get going or you'll be late"

Bolt walked out the door and made his way to the Third Training Ground, he wondered just how hard Konohamaru-Sensei's test could be. He actually started to get excited, a feeling of excitement he hadn't felt since his competition with Sarada the other day.

* * *

Sarada woke up later than she had meant to, she had been too busy stressing over both the test and her new teammates to get any sleep. She made her way downstairs to find her mother getting ready for work. Sakura was dressed in a pink vest, with a white medical jacket, and gloves. Sarada watched as her mother packed a medical pouch. She waited until her mother noticed her presence.

"Sarada, there are some new clothes on the chair over there for you" Her mother pointed towards a chair in the corner of the room. "Take this too" Sakura tossed the tan pouch she was packing, Sarada had barely managed to catch it... Her mother wasn't good at controlling her strength. The pouch had a red cross in a white circle on the back, to differentiate it from a normal weapons pouch.

"Thanks" Sarada smiled a little

"You're going to need that to take care of Bolt" Her mother winked at her, and Sarada seriously wanted to kill the woman. What the hell did she mean by that exactly?

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sarada unconsciously tightened her fists in anger.

"Oh, nothing" Her mother winked again "It's just, if he's like his father, he'll get himself hurt five times more often than anyone else"

"Right" Sarada sighed

Sarada picked up her clothes and went into the bathroom to change. She had been provided with a pink vest and a black jacket, along with a weapons pouch and a skirt. The jacket had the Uchiha Seal embroidered on the back and was open in the front, the vest had two pouches on either side of the buttons. Once Sarada had finished getting dressed, she went into the kitchen to find something to eat.

"What are you looking for?" Her mother asked.

"Breakfast"

"You're better off not eating today" Her mother was walking out the door already

"Wait! Why?" Sarada didn't like the sound of that.

"Don't worry" Sakura turned around and looked at her daughter "Also, you look cute in that outfit"

"Th-thanks" Sarada felt herself blush, she never really got compliments like that. She was told she was strong or smart a lot though.

"I'm sure Bolt will think so too" Her mother winked at her again, before running out the door.

"MOM!" Sarada was beyond annoyed. How could her mother think that she cared what Bolt thought? Sarada slipped on her sandals and walked out the door angrily, she wasn't nervous about the test anymore, she just felt like hitting something.

* * *

"YOUTH!" Guy yelled as he woke up. Seconds later he heard a reply.

"YOUTH!" His father yelled from downstairs.

"Both of you! Cut it out!" His mother screamed in response.

Guy ran downstairs, where he saw his father holding up a new, bright green jumpsuit, leg weights and a red headband belt.

"Guy! I got these for your first day as a real ninja!" Tears were falling from his father's eyes, which made Guy cry as well.

"Thank you Father!" Guy hugged his dad, and took the new clothes.

"You're both morons! Now eat your breakfast" Tenten pointed to the table, and Guy ran quickly to eat.

After breakfast, Guy began to make his way out the door, when he heard his father scream.

"GUY!" His fathers hands were in the air "Good Luck!"

His mother shook her head as she waved at him "Have a good day, Guy" She smiled and then hit his father over the head.

Guy walked to the Third Training Ground unsure of what to expect when he got there, what was this Genin Test exactly? Whatever it was, it must be full of YOUTH!

* * *

Bolt was the first to arrive at the training ground, he stood around with his hands in his pockets waiting for the others to show up. He thought about what the test was going to be, and how hard it could be. The blonde thought about his bout with Kakashi, and decided if he could survive that, he could survive this too. Sarada was the next person to arrive, and Bolt noticed that she had a new outfit too. He took notice a little too long in fact, because Sarada thought he was staring at her.

"What are you looking at?" She questioned him. She seemed annoyed and this scared Bolt a little, especially after seeing her fight.

"I-I like your outfit" Was the only excuse he could think of, that wouldn't end up with her hitting him.

"uh.." Sarada turned away from him, and looked down at the ground "th-thanks"

Bolt smiled a little, maybe she wasn't so scary after all, as long as he was sure to be nice to her. Although, now she wasn't looking at him, which worried him a little bit. They both stood there in silence for a little while, until Guy showed up.

"Teammates!" The green-suited kid yelled while running towards them "are we ready to display our power of YOUTH!"

"So... you're all here now?" Konohamaru-Sensei had appeared from behind a tree. Had he been there all along?

The three teammates all just nodded in response.

"Okay, your test, is to get theses bells from me" The Jonin held out two bells.

"Again?" Bolt was confused "That's the same thing as Uncle Kakashi!"

"It won't be easy" Sarada noted, while pushing up her glasses

"Let's go!" Guy shouted, while taking a stance.

"Well, he is weaker than Uncle Kakashi" Bolt noted "Plus, there's three of us" The blonde smirked.

"How come there's only two bells?" Guy was the first to ask.

"Now you get it" The Jonin smiled "Whoever fails to get one, goes back to the academy"

"Wait..." Guy's enthusiasm had dwindled to nothing.

"Figures..." Sarada sighed.

"Who cares?" Bolt began to charge at Konohamaru-Sensei "We can figure that out later, for now, let's just beat him up for making this stupid test!" Bolt had decided that whatever happened, he at least wanted to beat up Konohamaru-Sensei first.

* * *

Konohamaru was impressed by Bolt's sudden attack, the kid hadn't exactly seen through the test, but at least it was something. The Jonin blocked a punch from the blonde, and back fisted him in the stomach, sending the kid flying into the water. Konohamaru then turned to see Guy attacking him with a spinning kick, he ducked and let the green-suited ninja hit the ground. Finally, he turned and blocked the seven Kunai Sarada had thrown at him. The Jonin laughed, these kids weren't playing around.

"We have to work together, or we won't win." Sarada was dictating to the two boys, one of witch was now drenched in water.

"Right!" Bolt and Guy yelled in unison.

Konohamaru watched as Bolt leaned in and whispered something into Sarada's ear. He also noticed the brunette's face turn bright red, and wondered exactly what Bolt was saying. Then, they both turned and whispered into Guy's ear. _So, they have a plan then? _The Jonin chuckled to himself, just what could they be hatching? Konohamaru noticed that both Sarada and Bolt had begun weaving handsigns, and Guy had ran off. He tried to make note of them, to figure out their plan.

"Water Style: Water Trumpet!" The blonde had announced while charging. _He can use Water-Style? _

"Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu!" The brunette followed suit. _So they're both cooperating? _

A giant plume of steam enveloped the field, blocking the Jonin's view of his students. So, there plan was to make a smoke screen? Then, Konohamaru realized that Guy would be the one attacking. It made sense, he was the strongest at hand to hand combat. Sure enough, the Jonin took a kick to the side from a bright green leg. He grabbed the leg and spun a few times before sending Guy flying off. Konohamaru could hear dozens of footsteps now, meaning Bolt had sent in shadow clones too.

* * *

Bolt was breathing heavily while standing outside the plume of steam. Shadow Clones and Water Style took up a lot of his chakra. The blonde could tell that most of his clones had already been defeated, meaning the plan had been a failure. He looked over at Sarada, who seemed deep in thought.

"What should we do next?" He asked, as carefully as possible.

"Can you use anything besides Water-Style?" She looked at him for a second, and then looked away again. That was starting to bother Bolt.

"I can use a little Wind-Style, but that's about it" Bolt paused for a moment "No one really taught me, I kind of just picked out some Jutsu scrolls from my Dad's study" He admitted.

"Sensei is really strong" Guy had rejoined the group, and then proceeded to throw up from the spin he'd been given.

"That's why" Bolt and Sarada sighed in unison, coming to the same conclusion about their parent's advice.

"Of course I am!" Konohamaru-Sensei was walking out of the plume of steam with his hands behind his head.

"What are we going to do?" Guy sighed

"Nothing! You're all out of Chakra, and you weren't able to take either of the bells" The Jonin laughed.

"So... we fail" Bolt dropped his head, what was his father going to think now? Just when he had finally become a ninja...

"Nope, you all pass" Konohamaru-Sensei smiled while laughing.

"What? Why?" Sarada questioned.

"Yeah Sensei, you said we had to get those bells" Guy was pointing at the bells attached to Konohamaru's waist.

"Not the point, the point was to see if you would work as a team, even if one of you was assured to fail" The Jonin pointed out.

"You tried to get us to abandon the team?" Sarada asked while pushing up her glasses.

"Yup!" The Jonin nodded. "Team 5 starts its first mission tomorrow, meet me at the Assignment Desk at 6 AM."

"six in the morning?" The all said, in unison.

"That's when they give out the best missions" Konohamaru gave the team a thumbs up, and then disappeared.

"Oh well, I'm gonna go train, anyone wanna join me?" Bolt posed the invitation to the team.

"I will!" Guy followed Bolt as he started to walk off.

"I-i'm all set" Sarada looked down at the ground, and walked off.

* * *

Chocho was walking around the village following her Genin Test. Mirai-Sensei had done some puzzle game involving all sorts of weird numbers, she didn't understand any of it. Luckily, Shikadai managed to figure it out, so they all passed. The young-Akamichi wondered where Anko-Sensei was, if she could find her, she could sucker the woman into buying her some dumplings. However, Chocho noticed Sarada walking down the street, with her head looking down. She decided to see what was up.

"Hey girl! What's up?" Chocho walked up to the Uchiha and waved. The two of them spent a lot of time hanging out in the Academy during lunch breaks, Sarada was the only girl in the class that Chocho ever felt she could actually talk to. She suspected Sarada had felt the same way about her.

"N-nothing" Sarada kept walking. That meant it was something, and Chocho knew exactly what it was.

"Not following Bolt around today?" The fat girl braced for the reaction, the blonde had always a tricky subject with Sarada.

"I don't do that" Sarada's head was still down. Chocho picked up on something though.

"You didn't call him stupid"

"What?"

"Whenever I bring him up, the first thing you do is say 'boys are stupid' or something. What happened?" Chocho felt devious, just what could she get her friend to tell her?

"H-he, said he-" Sarada paused, and gripped onto her skirt. "Liked my outfit" Chocho watched as a smile crossed Sarada's face for a split second.

"Really? Maybe he likes you" Chocho elbowed her friend lightly in the side.

"I'm going home" Sarada announced.

"Then I'm coming over!" Chocho decided abruptly, she wasn't about to drop the subject.

* * *

Sakura was standing in the kitchen making lunch, after just finishing her shift at the hospital. She wondered how Sarada's test had gone, she had her answer when both her daughter and Chocho came through the door.

"What's up Mrs. U?" Choji's daughter asked, rather loudly.

"How are you Chocho, would you like something to eat?" Sakura was holding out a sandwich she had made.

"Why? Cuz I'm fat?" The girl asked with her hands on her hips.

"No... I just-" Sakura's apology was cut off.

"Sure, I'm hungry" Chocho sat down at the counter across from Sakura.

"Sarada, come eat." Sakura looked at her daughter, who was making her way upstairs.

"One second, Mama... I want to take off all this gear" Sarada continued her way up the stairs, and out of earshot.

"So" Chocho leaned in and whispered to Sakura "I think she's got a crush on Bolt"

"Really?" Sakura was trying to contain her laughter, so it was that obvious? "What makes you say that?"

"Whenever I bring him up... she gets all, you know.."

"Flustered?" Sakura asked, trying to supply the word Chocho was looking for.

"Ya" Chocho replied, with food in her mouth "plus, Bolt said he liked her outfit, and she seemed really happy when she told me"

"Wow" Sakura was a bit jealous that Sarada hadn't told her all this, but she was at least happy the girl had opened up to someone.

"So yeah, Sarada's probably crushing on Bolt... hard" Chocho announced, while spitting food onto the counter.

"She'd better not be" Sasuke had just walked through the front door to hear Chocho's proclamation.

"Sasuke?"

"Mr. U?" Chocho turned in her seat.

"Where is she?" Sasuke questioned.

"Upstairs" Sakura walked over to her husband and pointed her finger in his face. "and you'd better not say anything about it to her!"

"Why?" The Uchiha asked.

Sakura leaned in and whispered into her husband's ear, quiet enough so Chocho couldn't hear. "Because I won't do that thing you like tonight If you say even one word about it."

"Fine" Sasuke sighed, and Sakura smiled. She had that man wrapped around her finger, she was currently angry at him for not being home in so long, but that could wait for now.

"Papa?" Sarada was running down the stairs and into her father's arm.

"Hi, sweetie" Sasuke smiled down at his daughter as he picked her up and hugged her.

"Well, I'm gonna get going now" Chocho was walking out "Thanks for the food, Mrs U."

"Thanks for the update" Sakura turned and winked at the departing Akimichi.

Sakura watched as Sasuke put their daughter down and turned to hug her. She wrapped her arms around him as he wrapped his one arm around her, when the embrace ended she prompted him about his return.

"Naruto's going to want to know your back" Sakura informed him. "There's trouble brewing"

"I'm aware" Sasuke turned to walk out the door before stopping. "Sarada, congratulations by the way, Papa's very proud of you."

"Thank You" Sarada smiled and Sasuke walked out of the house.

* * *

Naruto was sitting in his office looking over missions for the new Genin, when Udon barged in.

"Lord Hokage-" Udon shouted, but Naruto cut him off, already knowing what he was going to say.

"He's back" Naruto stood up from his chair.

"About time" Shikamaru stood up as well, and then looked at Naruto.

"Call it" Naruto ordered to both his Advisor and aide.

"You don't mean?" Udon questioned

"Yup... It's such a drag to do." Shikamaru stretched his arms out.

"The Council of the 12 Heros?" Udon asked again, to make sure.

"That's the one" Naruto responded while pulling a scroll out of his desk, opening in, and lying in down on the desktop. It read:

_Council of the Twelve Heros of Konoha:_

_Hokage: Naruto Uzumaki  
_

_1st Advisor: Shikamaru Nara_

_Spymaster: Sasuke Uchiha_

_Head of the Medical Corps: Sakura Haruno_

_Village Security: Kiba Inuzuka_

_Mission Assignment Manager: Rock Lee_

_Weapons Development/Stockpiling: Tenten_

_Head of the Academy: Shino Aburame_

_Intel &amp; Interrogation: Ino Yamanaka_

_Food &amp; Resources: Choji Akamichi_

_Clan Relations: Hiniata Hyuuga_

_Hokage Bodyguard Division(Honorary): Neji Hyuuga | (Acting): Konohamaru Sarutobi &amp; Mirai Sarutobi_

"Didn't the Daimyo threaten to cut funding if we did that again" Udon asked, sounding very worried.

"That's because he thought we were plotting against him" Shikamaru noted.

"This time, he's actually consented to it" Naruto smiled while holding up a red scroll with the Daimyo's seal.

"Why?" Udon was wiping the fog off his glasses.

"His life's in danger" Naruto said rather grimly. "We have to assure his protection as quickly as possible. I can't do that unless everyone is on the same page"

"Right" Shikamaru agreed. "We can't do this without everyone's cooperation and expertise. I'll call it now."

Shikamaru exited the room and Naruto sat back down in his seat, placing his head in his hands.

"I really hope this doesn't end badly"

* * *

**What does Sasuke really think of Sarada's crush?**

**Who's after the Daimyo?**

**Also... Should I give Sasuke and Sakura a "romantic" night?**


	6. The Meeting

Lee was on his way to find his son, eager to learn about how his test went. When all of a sudden, he was approached by a small orange toad hopping down the center of the road. The reality of the situation hit him suddenly as he watched the toad stick its tongue out to reveal Naruto's teleporting marking. Lee held his hand over the marking and felt the Hokage's chakra begin to flow into him, a second later he was sitting in the Secret Council Meeting Room which is only accessible via teleportation. Lee looked around the room, its walls covered with shelves housing thousands of scrolls containing every secret known to the village. Slowly, the other members of the council appeared in their chairs, except Naruto and Sasuke.

"Shikamaru, what's this about?" Lee questioned out loud.

"Wait for Lord Seventh to arrive" Shikamaru was passing out a blue scroll to each council member.

"It's just us here, you can call him by his name ya know" Kiba barked, with his feet up on the table.

"It is customary to refer to the Hokage as the Hokage, regardless of our prior relation to him" Shino noted, with his elbows placed on the table.

"Really? Does Hinata call him 'Lord Hokage' in bed?" Kiba smirked while glancing over to Hinata.

"Maybe that's his thing. Hinata?" Ino was laughing as she looked at Hinata for a response.

"Well... umm" Hinata's face was bright red from the question.

"Guys, let's try to get along here" Lee was attempting to quiet the situation before Naruto showed up.

Suddenly, Naruto and Sasuke appeared in their seats, and the Hokage glanced over at Ino before opening the scroll in front of him. The blonde quickly looked away, having realized that Naruto had heard what she said.

* * *

Konohamaru was standing behind the Twelth Chair, next to Mirai. He didn't sit in the seat out of respect of the person who was honorably given the position he was acting in. Still, he reached onto the table and opened the scroll that had been given to him. It was a basic list of points that would be hit on during the meeting with an instruction at the bottom clarifying that the scroll was at S-Rank Clearence.

"Okay, let's start" Naruto had his chin resting on his hands.

"What's this about?" Kiba asked, his feet still up on the table.

"Someone is targeting the Feudal Lords" Shikamaru announced to the group.

"That's Insane!" Tenten yelled from the end of the room.

"Someone is really doing that?" Choji asked, with a BBQ stick in his mouth. He must have been eating before being teleported.

"The amount of Intel you could extract from a Feudal Lord is... Scary" Ino said in a scared tone.

"What are we going to do about it?" Shino calmly questioned.

"Protect our Feudal Lord by moving him into safe keeping in the village and investigate the situation once we have secured his safety" Shikamaru noted.

"Have any other nations had... Issues?" Sakura asked from her seat across from Sasuke.

"The Land of Water had its Daimyo captured a few days ago..." Shikamaru announced, to the council's shock.

"Not exactly" Sasuke stood up and looked over to Naruto, who nodded. "I suppose the rest of you should know, he's dead"

Sasuke pulled a small black book out of his cape, and flipped to one of the pages.

_Target: Daimyo of the Land of Water  
__Wanted: Dead  
Bounty: 122 Million Ryo  
Proof of Death: Head  
_

Sasuke then flipped the pages, revealing the faces of all of the Feudal Lords of the Five Great Nations, along with some minor lords and their relatives. Some had capture orders, while others had assassination orders.

"They're just looking for the body at this point" Sasuke tossed the book to Naruto and sat back down.

"How did you find this?" Shikamaru asked while holding the book that Naruto had just handed over to him.

"Flip to the second to last page" Sasuke was smirking.

Konohamaru noticed that Shikamaru's hands were shaking as the Jonin commander held up the last two pages. It showed that there were bounties on both Naruto and Sasuke's heads as well... The amount was a staggering 300 million ryo each.

"So then... Someone came after you?" Sakura asked hesitantly.

"About 60 of them" Sasuke waved his hand, as to shrug off the amount "The leader had that on him"

"So they are even targeting the Hokage" Shikamaru placed his head in his hands.

"Odds are they won't move inside the village" Shino said.

"I'll be fine" Naruto stood up, placing his hands on the table. "More importantly, we have to keep the Feudal Lord safe"

"How?" Sakura asked.

"First, Konohamaru how many bodyguards can you assign to guard him?"

"Naruto-nii" Konohamaru coughed, realizing his mistake. "Lord Hokage, those guards are for your protection"

"Naruto, you aren't really going to assign members of your personal guard... are you?" Ino questioned.

"How many?" Naruto asked again.

Konohamaru gulped, going through the roster of 20 ninja assigned specifically to guard the Hokage in his head. "Seven, is the most I can do"

"Fine" Naruto next looked to Sakura. "Can you organize a medical team to be attached to those seven?"

"Yes" She responded immediately.

"Kiba" The Hokage turned his attention to the Head of Security. "I need you to arrange a safe-house somewhere in the village, preferably a highly patrolled area, but don't let the patrolmen know it's there"

"Got it" Kiba removed his feet from the table.

"Ino" Sasuke stood up. "I left a present for you in the holding cells at the Intel Building"

"How many?" She asked.

"The leader and a couple of the stronger ones" Sasuke sat back down.

"Other than that" Shikamaru stood up. "It's business as usual, we don't want to alert any other nations to our current predicament."

"Meeting Dismissed" Naruto announced, a second later Konohamaru found himself sitting behind his desk at ANBU Headquarters. He decided to assign the members to the Feudal Lord and direct them to see Lord Kiba. He looked out the window of his office, which overlooked the underground interior of the ANBU HQ. There were currently about 100 ninja training in the facility, Konohamru picked up the phone on his desk and called out for the seven members he needed.

Once they had all arrived in his office, he assigned them their mission.

"Report to Lord Kiba at the Security Center immediately, await his instruction on the safe-house's location"

"Yes, Sir" Each of the seven operatives said in unison before exiting the office.

Konohamaru looked to the door, to see Mirai walk in looking rather worried.

"Are you sure about this, Konohamaru-senpai?"

"Not much else I can do" The older-Sarutobi sighed while looking at his cousin.

* * *

Sakura found herself standing back in her living room, where she had been before Naruto's toad had come to teleport her. She looked over to see Sasuke walking in through the door.

"So, that was eventful" He was smiling.

"That it was..." Sakura looked down, worried about what was happening with the world.

"So, want to go out for dinner?" Sasuke poked Sakura on the head.

"After all that... You want to go out for dinner?" She would laugh if it didn't seem so insane.

"I haven't been home in three months" He frowned, Sakura had forgotten how sensitive he could really be.

"Too busy fighting off bounty hunters?" She quipped, both to lighten the mood a little and to see if he would reveal anything else to her.

"Anyways, shall we go?" The dark-haired man held out his hand.

"What about Sarada?" Sakura asked, concerned about what their daughter would do for dinner.

"I'll be fine!" Sarada yelled from upstairs, that girl had some killer hearing. Sakura was hoping she hadn't heard the part about bounty hunters, she had been careful to whisper it.

Sakura and Sasuke walked through the bustling nighttime streets of Konoha, It was a Friday night so the festivities were in full swing. Sakura picked out a small restaurant to eat at, and the two were quickly seated after the hostess realized who they were.

Sasuke looked up from his menu at Sakura "So... It just had to be his son..."

"Did you expect any less?" She giggled at her husband's obvious displeasure with their daughter's choice in boys.

"Not really" The dark haired ninja sighed, as he flipped to the next page of the menu.

"Are you really upset over it?" The medical-nin asked, as her husband turned his head to face out the window.

"No" He was smiling. "Bolt's probably just as much as an idiot as his father was... That also means he would go to the ends of the earth for someone, and that's exactly what my daughter deserves."

"Correct" Sakura responded, pleased with her husband's conclusion.

* * *

Bolt was currently picking through the scrolls in his father's study. There were hundreds of them, filled with every elemental style of jutsu, along with all sorts of sealing techniques that Bolt had no clue how to use. He was picking through a few different Water Style scrolls when his father walked in.

"What are you doing?" His dad asked, with his hands placed on his hips.

"Looking for a new jutsu" Bolt said, while looking at a scroll that read 'Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu'

Naruto looked over Bolt's shoulder at the scroll he had.

"Too difficult" His father shook his head.

"Why?" Bolt looked up.

"Look at the hand seals" Naruto pointed to the scroll.

"Woah... next" Bolt knew he had no chance of memorizing forty something seals. "Hey, dad?"

"Yes"

"Can you do all of these" Bolt asked while looking around the room.

"Most of them" Naruto nodded. "I started collecting them before I officially became Hokage, because I realized that the jutsu I had, while powerful, wouldn't be enough"

"How?" Bolt asked, intrigued by his father's reasoning.

"If a fire were to start in the village, It would take a certain type of Water Style jutsu" His father explained. "If a flood happened, I would need an Earth-Style technique to build walls to protect the village. As Hokage, I had to have tools at my disposal to protect the village as quickly and efficiently as possible."

"What's a good one then?" Bolt asked, after hearing his father's reason for learning so many types of jutsu, Bolt was curious to see what his father thought he should learn.

"Hmm" Naruto looked around the room. "This one" Naruto pulled down a green scroll.

"I'm bad at Wind Style though" Bolt argued, he never understood how it worked.

"You have an affinity for it, trust me" Bolt felt his father placed his hand on his head, as he passed him the scroll.

"Wind Style: Air Gun?" Bolt was confused. "What does it do?"

"I'll show you" Bolt heard his father say that, and a second later they were in the middle of a forest. There was a weird marking on a rock nearby.

"Where are we?" Bolt asked, not sure where his father had taken him.

"A forest that needs to be cleared for a new housing project." Naruto removed his Hokage hat.

"Why?" Bolt didn't get what that had to do with him learning a new jutsu.

"The hand seals are: Tatsu, Tori, I, Inu" His father explained while forming the seals. "Wind Style: Air Gun" Naruto leaned forward and blew air out of his mouth, Bolt watched in amazement as a violent gust of wind rushed out of his father's mouth tearing the trees in front of him to shreds. When he was done, there was a fifty foot wide path about 400 feet long cut through to the end of the forest.

Bolt gulped as he saw the resultant in front of him "Whoa"

His father smiled. "Now imagine that combined with Sarada's Fire Style"

_Tatsu, Tori, I, Inu _Bolt focused his chakra to his mouth and blew. He watched as some of the leaves rustled, but nothing else happened.

"Imagine two gusts of wind rubbing up against each other in a shearing motion, then spin your chakra as you blow" His dad instructed.

That advice didn't help much, but Bolt was thrilled that his father was actually teaching him something, so he tried as hard as he could to follow the instructions as closely as possible and tried again.

This time, he managed to chip some bark off of one of the trees and snap a couple of small branches.

"Not bad" Naruto placed his hand on Bolt's head. "Let's go home, you've got your first mission tomorrow.

"I want to practice some more" Bolt looked up at his father, who was smiling down at him.

"There will be plenty of time for that" Naruto put his hat back on, and seconds later Bolt was standing in his room.

"Good night Bolt!" His father said as he left the room.

"Good night, Dad" Bolt changed into his nightclothes and set his alarm for 5AM.

* * *

Sasuke was in the process of carrying his slightly inebriated wife up the stairs to their bedroom, which was proving difficult with only one arm. He hadn't expected his simple idea for a romantic evening to get so out of hand, but before he knew it Sakura was on her seventh drink. He could hear her mumbling.

"Are we gonna rebuild your clan tonight?" She asked, trying to be flirty but slurring her speech in the process.

"You're a bit... Drunk" Sasuke chuckled lightly, this wasn't how he had expected the night to go.

"What's that have to do with having sex?" Sakura questioned while being placed down on the bed.

"You're about to pass out" He could tell by her eyes that the woman had about had it.

"You're right... I am" Sure enough, she was out cold.

Sasuke tucked his wife into bed, and went to check on his daughter. He made his way down the hallway and peeked into her room through the open door. Sarada was fast asleep, she was practically falling out of bed while holding a book in her hand. Sasuke picked up the book, careful to place a bookmark to save her place. Then, he tucked her carefully into bed and kissed her on the forehead. He flicked the lights off and shut the door.

Sasuke went downstairs and poured himself a drink, which he needed at this point. He looked around the room and thought about when he first came back to the village, to find out Naruto and Hinata had been married while he was gone. He had to admit, he was jealous that Naruto had found someone to share his life with at the time. The Uchiha was also embarrassed to admit that it took him months to garner the courage to speak to Sakura, he knew he had been horrible to her over the past years and never expected himself to be worthy of her forgiveness. When she said she had forgiven him, he vowed to himself to always work to earn that forgiveness that he never felt he really deserved. He swirled his drink in his glass as he thought about the past that had led him to where he was sitting right now. Sasuke was certain of two things; one, he didn't deserve the wife and family he had but was eternally grateful for them and two, he didn't deserve the forgiveness of Sakura or the village but he would protect both of them with his life.

* * *

Kiba was sitting behind his desk at the Security Office, late into the night. He had finally picked the perfect location to hide the Daimyo and was waiting for the Lord's arrival. He was alerted of it when one of Konohamaru's bodyguards ran into his office.

"The Feudal Lord has arrived" The Eagle masked ANBU member announced.

"Lead him to the safe-house" Kiba instructed, while grabbing his coat and mask off of the rack. He had decided it was best that all operatives tasked with guarding the Feudal Lord conceal their identities due to the bounty on the man's head. It was best to dissociate him from anyone. He went out to meet the Lord while he was en route to the safe-house.

"Oooh, are you the leader?" The Lord questioned upon Kiba's arrival.

"Yes, we will be using code numbers as to protect you from association" This was a lie, it was really to protect the operatives from association with the Feudal Lord. "Call me, Zero"

"Yes, and what about the guards?" The lord held a fan up to his face.

"One through Seven, their numbers are painted onto their masks" Kiba pointed the Eagle masked member, who was number 1.

"Okay!" The Lord slapped his fan shut as he was escorted into the safe-house by Member 6.

"One through Four, erect a barrier around the house" Kiba instructed and the members scattered to the four corners of the property.

Once the medical team and the remaining members of the Feudal Lord's entourage had made it inside, an invisible barrier was erected around the house making entry impossible. The bodyguards would have to switch around so that they could sleep, Kiba decided to leave that up to them, they were the professionals after all.

"Report?" Another ANBU member appeared at Kiba's side, and he realized from the smell that it was Konohamaru.

"All clear for now" Kiba waved his hand as he walked away.

* * *

**Not quite the "Romantic Night" Sasuke was hoping for, was it?**

**Special Thanks to: Angel-Rei-chan1 (Editor)**


	7. First Mission & The Attack

**Sorry! I've been procrastinating heavily...**

**Also, let's pretend chapters 701 &amp; 702 don't exist...okay?**

* * *

The next morning, Naruto was awoken by his beautiful wife rolling him out of bed.

"Time for work!" She said, while pointing at the clock

"Already?" The Hokage asked, rather groggy from his lack of sleep

"You're the one who wanted to be Hokage" She reminded him, while holding up his robe and hat.

"Right..." Naruto grabbed the hat and robe, and headed downstairs.

When he got downstairs, he found Bolt eating breakfast. This threw him for a bit of a loop, it wasn't normal for his son to be up at 5:30 in the morning. Nevermind that, the kid looked practically excited to be up this early

"Morning, Bolt" Naruto greeted his son, while pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"Morning!"

"Why are you... up so early?" Naruto proceeded to make his breakfast, until Hinata kicked him out of the kitchen because he was undoubtedly going to burn something. So, the Hokage took a seat at the table and watched Bolt eat.

"Konohamaru-Sensei said we had to be ready at six" Bolt said, while shoving half a pancake in his face.

"Why? It's not like there's a lack of missions or anything" Naruto asked, while remembering all the request forms he had to sign off on yesterday alone.

"The best ones, are early in the morning"

"Oh, really" The Hokage smiled, while sipping his coffee.

"Here" Hinata placed Naruto's breakfast in front of him, which consisted of a few pancakes, and bacon.

"What kind of mission do we get?" Bolt asked eagerly.

"Dunno, that's Lee's decision... He's the one in charge of assigning Missions" Naruto said, in order to spare himself from his son's anger when he finds out his mission will consist of picking up trash or something. Truth is, Lee was only in charge of assigning D and C Rank missions, and Naruto could just tell him what to assign... but Bolt didn't need to know that.

"You can't even give me a hint?" Bolt pleaded.

"Nope, lets go" Naruto, having finished his breakfast, teleported them both to his office.

* * *

Bolt had never actually been into his father's office before, and what he saw shocked him a little bit. There were papers strewn all over the room, and week old ramen cups stacked up on the floor. But what caught Bolt's eye more than anything, was the window at the back of the office, that looked over the entire village. It seemed to scream 'This is the Hokage's Office' more than anything else in the room.

"Sorry, it's a bit of a mess" His dad apologized, while putting on his robe and hat. He then proceeded to climb over piles of trash to reach his desk.

"Where do I meet Konohamaru-Sensei?" The young-Uzumaki asked, not sure what else to say.

"Oh... right" The Hokage paused "Udon!"

Bolt covered his ears as his father yelled, but was a bit amused when no one came.

"Damn... He's late, again" His father pounded his fist on the desk.

"Can't you just show me?" Bolt asked, hoping his father might reveal some details on the way.

"I have too much work to do" The Hokage responded, while seemingly pushing a button under his desk.

In a split second, the entire room went dark. The shades seemed to have closed instantaneously and the door had slammed shut. Bolt could hear mumbling in the room.

"Fire secured, I repeat Fire secured"

"Spark secured as well"

"Order to move to step-"

Then, Bolt heard his father yell.

"Shit, wrong button!" There was a pause, and then another mumble.

"All clear, Sir?"

"All clear" Bolt heard his father respond, and then the lights turned back on. Bolt felt his stomach sink as his saw the office now filled with about 6 ANBU members. All of them had weapons drawn, and one seemed to be in the midst of forming hand seals over a weird shaped Kunai in the floor.

"All clear, Fire is all clear" Bolt watched as the ANBU member in the white cloak, who he assumed was the leader, talked into his earpiece..

"Sorry about this" The Hokage apologized, while rubbing the back of his head.

"No problem, sir!" All six ANBU responded in unison, which made Bolt feel even more uneasy.

Once all of the Bodyguards had left, Bolt's father came out from behind his desk and placed his hand on his head.

"Sorry about that, the button for the receptionist is next to the panic button..."

"Panic button?" Bolt asked, not having ever seen his father panic over anything.

"Not my idea" He chuckled.

Bolt walked with his Dad down to the Mission Assignment desk. Along the way, Bolt took notice of the different offices that lined the halls. They must have passed by at least twenty, every office door had a title engraved into the glass.

Deputy Councilor for Mist Relations

Commander- Leaf Village Air Defense

Deputy Commander- Leaf Village Sea Defense

Commander- Leaf Village Technology Development

Bolt wondered what all these people did, and more about what his dad did, was this all really part of his father's job?

* * *

Konohamaru was standing in the Assignment Room, waiting for Bolt. It was already 6:20, and the kid was late. Granted, Konohamaru knew this was because Naruto had tripped an alarm by accident... As head of the Hokage's security detail, he was informed that the panic button had been hit. It was more of an annoyance than anything, Naruto only ever hit that button on accident anyways.

"Finally" the Jonin sighed as Bolt walked into the room.

"Of course you showed up late" Sarada chastised the young Uzumaki.

"It was my fault" Naruto had poked his head in and waved. "Lee, assign mission D-112"

"Yes!" Lee responded immediately

"Dad! What's our mission!?" Guy asked, while throwing his hands up in the air.

Lee tossed the Mission Scroll to Konohamaru, who caught it and opened it.

"We're to clear out part of a forest for a housing development" Konohamaru could feel his arms getting sore from axe swinging already.

"That's it!" Guy whined, disappointed with the mission.

Konohamaru gathered up his team and headed out. He was worried about what would happen if he had to be called away, Sarada and Bolt might just burn down half the trees in the Land of Fire if left unattended.

* * *

Ino had arrived to work around 7:00 in the morning, less than eager to interrogate the prisoners Sasuke had brought her. Torture wasn't exactly her thing, Ibiki had taught her about it when she took over his position as head of Interrogation... but she never quite cared for it. The blonde hoped that these bounty hunters would be easy to crack.

"Where's the leader?" Ino asked her assistant, who had placed all of the hunters in different rooms.

"Room 3, ma'am"

Ino walked into Room 3, and sat at the opposite end of the table from the lead hunter. He was a moderately sized man, with scars covering most of his arms and face. He had the look on his face of someone who had been through this kind of situation before... meaning he wasn't going to be that easy to crack.

"Name?" She asked first, seeing if he would reveal anything.

"Fuckboy Jones" The man smirked, and leaned back in his chair "they sent some woman to do this? The leaf is weaker than I thought"

The blonde interrogator shrugged off his comments, and grabbed the briefing clipboard off the table.

"Akira Fukui, rouge ninja from the Land of Earth and the Village Hidden in the Stones" Ino read out loud, looking to gauge the mans reaction.

"So, this village isn't that worthless after all" The hunter leaned forward in his seat

"Crimes: Murder of a Government Official, Stealing of Top Secret Information, and three counts of treason" Ino put the clipboard back down on the table "You're a very busy man"

"Thank you" The man smirked.

"So, I assume your not going to tell me why you tried to assassinate Sasuke Uchiha?"

"I will..." The man leaned forward "for the money"

"Where did you get the book?" Ino asked

"Not gonna tell ya, lady" The hunter leaned forward, the smirk was gone from his face "I've been tortured many times, it wont work"

"I know" Ino smiled, "but you haven't been tortured by us before" The blonde walked out of the room.

"What's next Ma'am" Her assistant asked

"Sleep deprivation, sound deprivation and light deprivation" Ino Instructed.

"How do we deprive sleep if.."

"Play a loud beep every 7 minutes, for a minute" Ino wrote on a clipboard "for five days"

"Yes ma'am"

Ino hated this kind of stuff, but she couldn't use her jutsu to search the man's mind until she had adequately broken his resistance.

* * *

The Eagle masked ANBU member was standing guard outside of the safehouse. When he got a page from one of the member's inside. The Feudal Lord was demanding to meet with the Hokage, and they were requesting that he handle it. There was no way that the Hokage could come out here, and Eagle knew that. But, dealing with a fussy Feudal Lord was now part of his job, and he wasn't quite sure how to handle it.

"My Lord, the Hokage is unable to meet you at this time" He said to the lord, as sternly as he could muster.

"Why not? Is he too busy to meet with the man who signs his checks?" The Lord responded, with all the arrogance of a noble.

"No sir, It's just that..." Eagle wasn't sure how to handle this, his job was to protect people, not hold their damn hand.

"It would put you in danger" Kiba had entered the room "The Hokage coming to a random house in the middle of the village could alert people to your location"

"Ahh.. I see" The Daimyo waved his fan in front of his face. "Then please tell him these accommodations are dreadful, and I request new ones immediately"

"Sir, that's-" Eagle was cut off.

"We'll deliver the message" Kiba bowed, and pulled Eagle out of the room.

"Do I-"

"Screw the message, just make sure the bastard doesn't get killed" Kiba ordered.

"Yes Sir" Eagle agreed, while wishing he was back on the Hokage's accidental button pushing detail.

* * *

Sarada wasn't exactly pleased with her mission, cutting down trees wasn't what she should be doing. But, nevertheless, here she was swinging some stupid axe into one of the 500 trees they had to cut down. She wished she could just burn them down.

"Wind Style: Air Gun!" Bolt yelled, and Sarada felt a sharp gust of air blow past her ripping up some of the trees... none fell however.

"Not bad Bolt" Konohamaru-Sensei said "But it's no way near powerful enough"

Sarada noticed that her Sensei had been cutting down trees with relative ease, but he didn't seem to be over exerting himself.

"Sensei, is your axe sharper than ours?" The young-Uchiha was wondering if he had some special axe or something.

"Nope, I'm just using Chakra" That's when Sarada noticed that her Sensei's axe had a thin layer of Chakra around it, allowing him to cut into the tree easier.

"Like this" She asked, while channeling her chakra into the axe. The brunette then swung at the tree, but it only did slightly more damage.

"Yes, but I'm using Wind Chakra" Konohamaru-Sensei smiled, so it's more effective.

Meanwhile, Guy had cut down five trees with sheer strength alone, while Sarada hadn't managed to get halfway through one.

Apparently Bolt had overheard, because he picked up his axe and tried the same thing.

"Good Bolt, now change the nature to wind" Sensei instructed.

Sure enough, Bolt blew through half a tree on his first swing. His chakra control was abhorrent, but at least he was making progress. That was when Sarada decided to turn he chakra into fire. This backfired, when after her first swing, she lit the entire tree on fire.

"Bolt!" Konohamaru-Sensei yelled

"Water-Style: Water Gun" Bolt had put out the fire Sarada caused, making her feel more useless as a result.

"Sarada, you cant use fire for this" Konohamaru-Sensei said, while placing his hand on her axe. "I'm going to change the nature to wind... see if you can hold it"

Sarada watched as her chakra changed natures, and felt useless as ever. She had no way to cut down a freaking tree! Then, she remembered something her mother had tried to teach her once. She focused all of the chakra into a single line of the axe, causing it to be heavily concentrated in one area. Much like how her mother used chakra to make destructive punches. Sure enough, she cut out about a 1/4 of the tree in one swing. She was good at chakra control, which meant if she focused enough she could match Guy and Bolt's destructive power.

By the end of the day, the team of four had only managed to cut down about 40 of the 500 trees, much to their displeasure.

"We can keep going!" Guy and Bolt pleaded in unison.

"You're both completely out of Chakra." Sarada was annoyed at them and herself, she had failed to conserve chakra as well.

"Take tomorrow off, I have a meeting to go to" Konohamaru-sensei waved as he walked off.

* * *

It was around 6:00 at night, when Naruto awoke in his office to a sheet of paper stuck to his face. Why exactly did he have to do so much paperwork? He was taken out of his stupor by a ringing phone, he reached over to pick up.

"Code Clearance A?" Ino said, following the proper rules that Shikamaru insisted everyone use.

"Clearance K, What's up Ino" Naruto followed the dumb procedure because he didn't quite understand it.

"The group leader has yet to break, a few of the others broke down and told me everything they know"

"Which was?" The Hokage asked, still groggy from his nap.

"Not much, the second in command is offering to show us their base of operations if we agree to imprison him here" Ino continued.

"Instead of?" Naruto asked, not sure what the alternative to imprisonment was.

"Sending him back to his village, where he'll be executed" Ino clarified.

"What Village?" The Hokage asked, running through the list of villages he was avoiding trying to anger.

"Waterfall"

"Fine, agree to it" Naruto paused. "Let me know as soon as possible"

After hanging up, Naruto reached under his desk and made sure to push the button for an assistant instead of the panic button. A few moments later, a Chunnin officer entered the room.

"Can you get Shikamaru please?" Naruto asked, while planning out the attack on the Bounty Hunters base in his head. "Get Konohamaru and Kiba too"

At around 7:30, Shikamaru, Konohamaru and Kiba had all arrived in Naruto's office. Naruto spent the next hour going over every inch of the map that Ino's prisoner had provided.

"Are we sure about this?" Kiba asked "It could drive them to attack us in retaliation"

"It could also be a trap" Shikamaru noted.

"Could we scout it out first?" Konohamaru asked, it was unlike him to speak at these meeting.

Naruto looked over to Kiba and Shikamaru, looking for their opinions.

"There's a chance the scouts end up dead" Shikamaru said, grimly.

"We can't just sit on our asses though" Kiba retorted.

Naruto hated these kinds of decisions, they always ended up with some negative outcome no matter what he chose to do.

"Assemble a scouting squad, with a force ready to strike if the squad gives the go" Naruto ordered, after 10 minutes of deliberating in his head.

"How many?" Kiba asked.

"4 Scouts and 20 Black Ops" The Hokage instructed.

"Yes, sir!" All three sounded off in unison

Just as they were all about to leave the office, a flash came through the window, followed by the sound of a loud explosion. Naruto could see a few buildings on fire in the village.

"What the-" Naruto yelled as he was surrounded by Bodyguards.

"Fire Bomb?" Kiba asked into his earpiece "How far from Zone 14?" Which was the Zone holding the Feudal Lord.

The signal in the earpiece was weak "Explosion in *static* zone 12"

"Not far" Konohamaru said, while holding his finger to his own earpiece.

"Orders sir?" One of the bodyguards asked outloud.

"Well-" Naruto was cut off

"I've got Fire, secure Spark, Ember and Lady Fire at once" Konohamaru yelled at both the bodyguards and his earpiece.

"Yes Sir!" The bodyguards dispersed.

"What's going on?" The Hokage asked.

"We're under attack... from something" Shikamaru stated

"Shit!" Kiba, having been the first to realize something for once, ran to the phone. Naruto felt lost in the confusion, and couldn't piece together what was going on.

"Clearance SS, secure the Intel Building immediately!" Kiba yelled into the phone, and Naruto began to realize what was going on. The attack hadn't been to flush out the Feudal Lord, it was intended as a distraction to free the prisoners.

Naruto ran over to his desk and pulled out a red phone, and a button.

"Are you sure?" Shikamaru asked, knowing what Naruto was about to do.

"Clearance K, Move the village to Top Security" Naruto hung up the phone, and pushed the red button. While it seemed a bit cliche, the button's purpose was to alert every Jonin and Chunnin in the village to be prepared for any attack. Basically speaking, Naruto had just mobilized every ninja in the village to be on ready alert. .

"Lady Hinata and Lady Himawari are secured" Konohamaru announced. .

Naruto switched to father mode almost immediately after hearing the names. "What about Bolt?"

"Status of Spark?" Konohamaru asked into the earpiece.

"Secure" Was the one word response they got.

* * *

It was like 9:30 at night, and Bolt was being pulled from training in the woods by three or four ANBU members who refused to answer any questions.

"Where are we going?" Bolt yelled as they pulled him away.

"Clearance?" The Rabbit masked man asked.

"huh?" Bolt had no clue what that was supposed to mean, but these men looked similar to the ones he had seen that morning... which still did little to put him at ease.

"We're being tailed" the Mouse masked man announced.

_Tailed? _Bolt felt his stomach sink, was someone hunting him? Or was he being kidnapped?

"Let go of me!" Sarada screamed.

"Sarada, what are you doing?" Bolt asked, he would have been laughing if he wasn't so scared at the moment.

"Do you know her?" The Rabbit masked man asked.

"Yes, shes on my team!" Bolt yelled.

"Come with us young lady"

Minutes later, they arrived at what seemed to be a random rock in the middle of nowhere. That was until one of the ninja placed a tag on the rock, and the slid to reveal a hidden stairwell. Bolt was lead down this stairwell into a dim room filled with benches and stuffed to the brim with ration boxes.

"Mom?" Bolt asked, when he saw Hinata sitting with Himawari.

"Are you okay?" His mother asked, in her usual caring tone.

"Yea, what's going on?" Bolt was still shaken up, but seeing his mother and sister had put him slightly at ease.

"Don't worry, your father will take care of it" His mother smiled, completely assured in what she was saying.

* * *

Naruto was now standing on the roof on the Hokage Mansion, fielding reports.

"Five dead, twelve injured" Naruto felt his stomach sink, were those deaths his fault? It was his job to protect them wasn't it?

"Two buildings destroyed" one Jonin reported.

"Fire is under control for the time being" Said another.

"Village is being swept for any more bombs, Zones 1-5 clear and locked down" A security officer announced.

"What about the Intel Building?" Kiba asked, while looking at a Coms Ninja.

"Secure, attempted attack by 5 combatants"

"Status?" Kiba asked.

"4 Dead, one captured" the Coms ninja reported.

"Naruto" Shikamaru had placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder "We couldn't have seen this coming"

"I know" Naruto responded "I just wish we did"

Naruto watched as ninja ran all over the place, each had a job to do and something to show for it. Meanwhile he was stuck standing around watching and hoping everything turned out okay. His only job seemed to be to approve everyone else's job.

"Does anyone know where my daughter is?" Sasuke had appeared on the roof.

"Secured with Bolt, shes safe" Konohamaru said, while simultaneously directing ninja to different parts of the village.

"We found a hideout" Naruto informed Sasuke.

"Where?" The elder-Uchiha asked.

"Zones 6-11 Clear and locked down" The chaos on the roof was still in full swing.

"Here" Naruto handed over the map.

"Zones 12-19 Clear and locked down"

"I'll handle it" Sasuke said, and seconds later a hawk appeared underneath him. "Could be a trap"

"Zones 19-25 Clear, Village Clear and locked down"

"Thanks" Naruto watched as Sasuke flew off.

"Lord Hokage, How long should we keep the Village locked down?" A commander asked, Naruto glanced at the Blue band around the Jonin's arm. He was one of Kiba's deputies.

"Until the morning" Naruto ordered.

"The Police will start investigating the crime scene, until then we wont have many answers..." Shikamaru paused "Ino will interrogate the man we captured, we'll find out who did this"

"We'd better, and when we do..." Naruto trailed off.

"When we do?" Shikamaru asked.

"We'll beat the hell out of them" Naruto stood on the roof looked over the village, he kept his watch all night.

* * *

**Questions Answers:**

**Omg what great story but one question why didn't sai take neji seat?**

_Thanks :) I have another role for Sai to play..._

**Where the author apologizes for this chapter being relatively sub-par. **

_Sorry..._


	8. Intel is Key

**Two chapters in one day? I must be a wizard or something!**

**Nah, I'm just sulking over rejection... But hey, inspiration comes in many forms right?**

* * *

The Leaf Village stood in utter silence for the remainder of the night, her ninja had covered every inch looking for possible threats. Her leader stood watch from the top of his mansion, and firefighters worked to put out the flames of the attack.

* * *

During the midst of the attack, Ino had decided it was time to ramp up her interrogation. Using every bit of knowledge she had in the Yamanaka clan's Ninjutsu to pry as deep as she could into the leader's mind. It was however riddled with traps and false memories that made it nearly impossible to sift out an actual story. The man had memories implanted from different villages and time periods, some of which put him in the same place at the same time.

Nevertheless, Ino and her four assistants worked deep into the night, carefully sorting the fake memories from the real ones and avoiding all the traps that had been set in the man's mind. By 5:00 in the morning, she was able to call the Hokage with a final verdict.

"Clearance SS" Ino spoke into the phone, which was a direct line to the Hokage's office. As head of the Intel Department, she had access to information up to SSS Rank, one below Naruto's K Rank. However, when calling she always stated the classification of the Intel she was about to share.

"Clearance K, any news?" Naruto seemed like he was on edge.

"The leader belongs to a group known as 'The Fighters for a Unified World', We suspect that their objective is to topple the Governments of all the nations on the continent and establish a new order" Ino's hand was shaking slightly.

"Hence, why they're so eager to kill me" Naruto responded.

"Not just you, many powerful people are on their list" Ino hesitated "Including Gaara, and Killer B"

"They weren't in the book?" Naruto's disbelief could be heard over the phone.

"Multiple books probably, to limit the amount of information that could leak"

"Ino, write a briefing and send it to Shikamaru, Kiba, and Sasuke"

"Got it"

* * *

Bolt was happy to finally have been allowed to go home, granted his house was now surrounded by armed guards... but at least he was home. Having slept in the bunker, Bolt was too awake to sleep, so he decided to see if he could go train.

"Can I leave?" He asked the Rabbit masked man.

"Yes, I'll escort you" The man looked down at Bolt "Where would you like to go?"

"Do you have to?" Bolt was annoyed, did he really need someone to stand guard over him?

"Yes, on the orders of Commander Konohamaru" The Rabbit man said.

"Konohama-" Bolt was annoyed, so this was Konohamaru-sensei's idea! "take me to the woods from last night"

"Of course, after you"

Bolt walked towards the woods, all the time being followed by this man. When he got there, he wasn't surprised to find Guy already there... he was a bit surprised to see Sarada however.

"Hey, what's up?" Bolt waved as he approached the group.

"Who's that?" Guy asked, referring to the ANBU agent on Bolt's tail.

"Hmm... He's Mr. Rabbit" That's what Bolt had decided to call him.

"Mr. Rabbit? Bolt, that's a member of the Anbu Black Ops, not a character in some dumb cartoon" Sarada complained, as usual.

"Ya, but he has a rabbit mask" Bolt argued, knowing full well it would only serve to make Sarada angry at him..

"This is true!" Guy pointed at the mask the man was wearing.

"It's to hide his identity" Sarada continued, seeming fully intent on killing Bolt's fun.

"Like, he's a secret agent or something?" Guy questioned, confused.

"He is a secret agent!" Sarada yelled, while slamming her axe into a tree.

"Like spies?" Bolt asked, slightly intrigued.

"Spies?" Guy asked excitedly "Hey, Mr. Rabbit are you really a spy"

*silence*

"He's not going to answer you!" Sarada yelled "But, yes ANBU agents carry out all sorts of missions... including spying"

"I want to be an ANBU" Guy laughed while kicking a tree for training "What kind of mask would I get?"

"You're not cut out for it" Sarada stated, while toppling over a tree.

"Are you a spy?" Bolt asked Mr. Rabbit, curiously.

"No, I am a member of the Hokage Bodyguard Unit assigned to guard you" Mr. Rabbit's testimony sent a bit of a shock wave through the group.

"From?" Guy asked first, even though it was an answer they all wanted to know.

"Clearance?" Was Mr. Rabbit's only response.

"Clearance?" Guy repeated "What does that mean?"

Sarada sighed "Basically speaking, you're not important enough to know"

Bolt had lost interest in Mr. Rabbit for the time being, mostly because the guy was pretty quiet and wasn't going to tell them anything anyways. So, Bolt decided to practice his Wind-Style. After about 14 attempts however, he had only managed to cut about halfway through a few random trees.

"Maybe that Jutsu just isn't powerful enough?" Guy proposed, unaware of the Hokage's prior success with it.

"No, I'm just not good at it" Bolt whined.

"So, get better" Sarada chided him, haven knocked down 6 trees during Bolt's practicing.

"How?" Bolt continued to whine "Who else knows how to use Wind-Style?"

Shockingly, Mr. Rabbit raised his hand.

"What is Bolt doing wrong?" Sarada asked, seeming to be taking joy in the young-blonde's failures.

Mr. Rabbit turned to face Bolt "You're spreading the wind out too much, causing it to lose strength. Try to focus it into a thin blade of concentrated power"

"Huh?" Bolt responded, utterly confused by the answer.

"Basically, flatten the height of your Air Gun so that the wind is in a smaller area" Sarada translated for Bolt.

Bolt spent the next half hour focusing on the way his chakra left his body. He imagined a scythe of wind slicing though trees rather than a brunt of wind blowing them over by sheer force. Then, when he thought he had it down, he tried again.

"Wind Style: Air Gun" The wind exited Bolt's mouth in a thin line, slicing down five trees instantly. It was still a far shot from his father's Air Gun, but it was progress nonetheless.

"Whooo!" Guy screamed excitedly "That was the power of youth!"

"Not bad... for you" Sarada claimed, but she seemed to be rather upset.

* * *

Sasuke had arrived at the Bounty Hunter's camp early in the morning to find it utterly deserted. Meaning that they had realized their location had been compromised either during the attack, or before it. Sasuke reasoned that they must have figured it out during the attack, because their attempt to free the prisoners should have been to protect their base of operations. Or, the group had rotating bases similar to Orochimaru's hideouts and had chosen to move before the attack to avoid repercussions. The final possibility was that they had been given a false location by the prisoners, and this was a trap.

Sasuke began to snoop around the area, looking for clues to the gang's whereabouts. There were a few empty tents left, and various supplies that were of little intelligence value. After about 15 minutes of searing the camp, Sasuke concluded that there had been around 40 residents at some point. He reasoned this based on the number of people a tent could hold, and the number of dead grass spots on the ground. Indicating that there had been about 20 tents here, and that they had been here a while. In fact, the embers in the fire pits were still warm.

As he was about to leave the area, the elder-Uchiha felt an influx of chakra in the area. Seconds later, a barrier surrounded the camp. Meaning that this had been a trap all along...

"Target acquired, Sasuke Uchiha" One of the hunters outside the barrier shouted into a hand radio.

"You think this can hold me?" Sasuke laughed to himself, while releasing an obscene amount of chakra.

Cracks began to form in the barrier's walls, as Sasuke's dense chakra increased the pressure inside. It took about half a minute for the barrier ninjutsu to fail completely

"Target lost, retreat at once!"

"And who's target am I exactly?" Sasuke asked, while holding the Bounty Hunter up by his throat.

* * *

Naruto was sitting behind his desk, reading over the briefing that Ino had sent him with Shikamaru. The information was kept in a purple folder, with "SS" typed on the front.

"The Fighters for a Unified World?" Shikamaru questioned the name.

"How can they afford these bounties?" Naruto asked, wondering how some fringe group could muster this amount of money

"Either they're lying, or the group is being lead by some very wealthy people" His adviser explained.

"Who would fund this?" The Hokage asked.

"Either Feudal Lords from smaller nations, or wealthy business men"

"Business men, who have hit a ceiling in power?" Naruto prompted.

"Exactly, many business men resent the Feudal Lords wealth because they inherited it as opposed to earning it" Shikamaru explained.

"Then why attack me?" Naruto asked, unsure of his role in all of this.

"Simple, the Leaf Village is part of the Feudal Lords power... and you are the seat of that power"

"Doesn't this mean Kakashi-sensei is in danger too and Grandma Tsunade?" The Hokage asked, more concerned about his predecessor's safety than his own.

"Who do we have capable of guarding them? Not that they'll like it." Shikamaru asked.

"They have their own personal guards, so they might be okay... see if Sai can take some time off to help"

"Sai is in charge of all of our foreign ambassadors, are you sure you want to distract him with this?"

"We'll be taking that over, we need to keep a close eye on that now anyways" Naruto said.

"Right, anything else?" Shikamaru asked, while writing things down on his clipboard.

"How's the police investigation going?"

"Kiba should have some answers soon"

* * *

Sarada had left soon after Bolt had begun to make some real progress, utterly annoyed with her own lack of it. She returned home to find her mother buried in paperwork at the dining room table.

"What's all this?" The young-Uchiha asked, not used to seeing her mother bring work home.

"I have to overlook all of the case work for the injuries we took in last night, the Hokage wants as report as soon as possible" Her mother groaned, not even looking up from the pile of papers.

"What happened last night?" Sarada asked, still wondering what was the reason she had been lead to a bunker and why Bolt was being followed around by Black Ops.

"Can't tell you... Top Secret"

"Is it the reason Bolt as a rabbit masked man following him?" Sarada asked, wondering if the two events were connected.

"Rabbit mas-" her mother paused "Can't tell you"

"Why!" Sarada was getting annoyed.

Her mother just sighed "Because, certain things have to stay a secret to keep you all safe"

"Okay" Sarada sighed in return, realizing she was the one over reacting.

"So, how did your day go honey?" Her mother asked, finally looking up from her paperwork.

"Mom, I want you to train me!" Sarada yelled, after remembering the lack of success she had.

"I can't, I have too much work to do" The pink-haired woman sighed.

"Always so serious, honestly you're no fun at all Sakura" Tsunade had apparently snuck into the house at some point and was in the process of pouring herself a drink.

"Lady Tsunade!" Sarada watched as her mother greeted their guest in a frantic, and panicked manner.

"Lord Fifth?" Sarada asked.

"So, your old mother wont train you?" The blonde haired woman teased. "Then let me"

"Aren't you like... 80?" Sarada asked, confused because the woman looked 22.

Sarada regretted her comment when she received a fist to the head.

"67! But I look great!" The former Hokage bragged.

"That's because you're using a Jutsu to hide your-" Her mother's comment was ended by a fist to the head from the former Hokage.

"Let's go" Tsunade grabbed Sarada by the arm, much to the girls displeasure.

* * *

Kiba was standing at the blast site, as detectives from the Konoha Police Force ran around everywhere testing samples. While supervising the inspection, he also had to oversee the Feudal Lord's protection detail... which was proving to be a large pain in the ass. The bastard was complaining that his tea wasn't hot enough and that he didn't have a proper view. Because in fact, he had no view, he wasn't allowed near the windows. Which of course had been painted over black, so that no one could see inside the house.

"Report?" Kiba asked as an Anbu Agent appeared by his side.

"Getting restless, and demands to be moved to another location" The Eagle faced member reported.

"Ask him if he'd prefer I shove his ass in a underground bunker" Kiba scoffed.

"Sir?"

"No, tell him we are working diligently to provide better accommodations" Kiba rubbed his hand into his face.

"Are we?" The agent questioned.

"Hell no, his ass can stay where it is... he just can't know that" Kiba smirked.

"Yes, Sir"

Kiba continued to watch over the investigation, after about another hour, the Chief Detective came to him carrying a white folder, meaning the Intel had yet to be classified. Kiba sifted through the folder, and read the findings from each of the detectives. In order to keep everything as secretive as possible, each detective conducted a specific part of the investigation and it was up to Kiba to piece the whole thing together. When he did, he returned to his office and slipped the reports into a Purple "S" rank folder, before calling Naruto.

"Clearance?" Kiba groaned into the phone, in annoyance of the stupid protocols.

"K, What did you find?" Naruto asked, in a hurried tone.

"It was a chakra bomb, tied to a person..." Kiba started his report.

"A suicide bomber?" Naruto seemed stunned.

"No, it seems as if he was forced into it... there are no signs this man was a ninja"

"How do you know?" The Hokage seemed confused already... which was never good when explaining things to him.

"Coroner said so, something about muscle mass and their Chakra points never having been opened... it was most likely a civilian held hostage... they probably threatened his family or something"

Kiba could hear Naruto slam his fist against the desk over the phone. "Anything else?"

"The bomb was detonated remotely via a chakra transmitter, most likely by one of the people who attacked the Intel Building last night"

"Got it. Thanks" Naruto hung up the phone.

* * *

Bolt was a bit stunned to see Sarada return, after she had walked off randomly. Even more so, he was surprised to see who she returned with.

"Great-Grandma Tsunade?" Bolt questioned, and then regretted.

"Who are you calling a 'Great-Grandma'!?" The old woman asked, when punching Bolt in the head.

"Sorry" The young-blonde stammered out an apology.

"Now then" The old-hag continued. "This is how you throw a punch"

"I already know how to-" Sarada stopped when she noticed that Tsunade's Punch had leveled about 30 trees.

"Whoa" Bolt was happy at that moment, that she had held back when punching him.

Bolt watched quietly as Tsunade explained to Sarada what she did and how to do it. Eventually, it was just him and Guy sitting in the grass watching Sarada punch trees. It felt weird to just watch someone, and it felt especially weird for that someone to be Sarada. She rarely ever spoke to him without a twinge of disdain in her voice, and yet for some reason Bolt kept feeling more drawn to her the longer he watched her train. The young-Uzumaki decided that sitting around was a waste of time... this was mostly a lie, his true intention was to distract himself from the odd feeling welling up inside of him that he couldn't identify or describe.

Bolt faced towards some of the less decimated trees, and started weave his hand signs, while imagining a blade made of wind slicing through the path in front of him.

"Wind-Style: Air Gun!" Bolt released the chakra from his mouth, with all the force he could muster. He watched as the wind sliced through about 8 or so trees.

"Like father like son" The old-blonde chuckled.

"How?" Sarada asked, she seemed confused by the jab

"His chakra control sucks" The old-hag paused "That's why you'll be a stronger ninja than him" She turned to Sarada.

Bolt was annoyed now, his nervous feeling from before had turned into a competitive anger. He focused on welling up all the chakra he had, and expelling it in one shot. Then, he did.

About 12 trees fell that time, with two more having significant cuts in them.

He simply look at Sarada and smirked, having issued his challenge.

* * *

At some point, Sasuke decided that the Bounty Hunter was of little use to him. The elder-Uchiha didn't exactly want to kill the man, but he couldn't bring him back to the Leaf and put the village in more danger.

"What am I going to do with you?" The dark haired ninja asked.

"Don't kill me!" The Bounty hunter pleaded, like the coward he was.

"Wouldn't dream of it" Sasuke dropped the man onto the ground "You're now one of my spies"

"Huh?"

Sasuke didn't answer the man's question, instead he placed his hand on the man's forehead and placed a sealing technique in the hunter's head.

"What was that?"

"A jutsu that lets me read your mind, analyse your thoughts and if I want... destroy your brain" He stated, with no emotion in his voice.

"What do you want?"

"Simple, go back to your group and report to me every night" Sasuke paused when he noticed the mans confusion "Just think something in your head, and I'll pick up on it"

"Yes.. got it" The man said before running off.

What Sasuke didn't tell the Hunter was that he had to be in a certain range to pick up thoughts, meaning that he would have to tail the man anyways. It was still useful to have someone on the inside, under your complete control however.

* * *

Shikamaru was wishing the day would just end already, currently he was sitting in Naruto's office discussing how to inform the other nations of this issue.

"We can't call a Five Kage Summit without drawing some serious attention" Shikamaru noted, trying to put the idea of the table before Naruto tried to run with it.

"What about going through each Nation's ambassador here in the Leaf?" The Hokage asked.

"It would involve too many people in this issue..." Not that Shikamaru had any better idea at the moment.

"What about calling them?" Naruto paused, having realized what Shikamaru would say next "Someone could tap it"

"There's only one option on the table... the old fashioned way" The adviser stood up, and grabbed a blank scroll of the shelf.

"Get me four Jonin, and draft some S Rank Mission assignments" Naruto instructed.

"Right away" Shikamaru left the office and walked down to the Jonin Standby Room.

When he entered the room, there were only about three people there. Most of the Jonin were helping with the village lockdown, meaning Shikamaru would have to find one more. Currently in the room were:

Yuudai Kimura\- A Veteran Jonin, under the 5th, 6th and now 7th Hokage. He was an elderly man, around 47, that Shikamaru didn't quite care for. However, he was an expert at covert operation and had spent 4 years as an ANBU agent.

Rokuro Takenaka\- Not quite the kind of person Shikamaru wanted for this job, the guy was lazy, a quality Shikamaru appreciated given his own laziness... but not one he really wanted in a S Rank Messenger.

Kaede Shun\- The rookie of the group, Naruto had only appointed the Kid as a Jonin a year ago. He was only 16, which while impressive, did not make the elder-Nara too eager to hand over an S-Rank document.

It's not like Shikamaru wanted to go out of his way to learn about these people, but he figured it was part of his job as Jonin-Commander to know his subordinates.

"You three, have a mission" He announced to the room. Yuudai was reading a book, Rokuro was napping on the couch and Kaede was eating.

"Anything Good?" Yuudai grumbled, not even bothering to look up from his book.

"Sounds like a lot of work, If the Jonin-Commander is coming here personally" Rokuro complained, having been awoken from his nap.

"Probably something S-Ranked then" Kaede noted, while taking a bite out of his cake. Shikamaru was a bit impressed, the kid might actually be one of the smarter ones in the room.

"You're are all to deliver messages directly to the Kages of the other Five Great Nations" Shikamaru instructed, to mixed reactions.

"Directly? Now that's something" Yuudai looked up from his book, seeming moderately impressed.

"Can I take the Sand? it's the closest." Rokuro sat up on the couch, and was slipping his flak jacket on.

"I'll go wherever you want me to" Kaede had put down his food, and was gearing up. Now, this was the kind of kid Shikamaru could grow to like. Someone who did what was asked, without asking why.

"Report to the Hokage's office in an hour" Shikamaru instructed, while picking up the phone in the room.

"Got it" Mumbled Yuudai

"Okay" Rokuro grumbled, half-asleep

"Yes Sir!" Kaede piped, seeming overly excited.

Once the three had left, Shikamaru dialed the number for ANBU Headquarters.

"Hello?" The receptionist asked.

"Connect me to Mirai Sarutobi please"

"May I ask who's calling?"

The elder-Nara sighed "Jonin-Commander Shikamaru Nara, Adviser to the Hokage" He really hated to title drop, but he couldn't waste time with all of the ANBU formalities at the moment.

* * *

Tsunade was both baffled and not surprised that Bolt and Sarada's competition had gone on this long. In an hour, they were at 25-25 in tree counts. They had their father's stamina for sure, however both of them were nearing the end of their chakra supplies.

"Not bad" Bolt smirked "betcha can't get to twenty six!"

"Watch me" Sarada then punched a tree, sending it flying into the one behind it.. meaning she now had 27.

"Wind Style: Air Gun" Bolt seemed to barely muster the chakra necessary to knock down two more trees, but was able to tie Sarada.

"Here I go" Tsunade watched as Sarada went to punch another tree, but cringed slightly as the poor girl spit her knuckles on the bark... she was out of chakra.

"I win" The young-blonde bragged as he formed his seals and Tsunade could tell the same thing was about to happen to him. Sure enough, the kid only produced a tiny breeze.

"You're both done... It's a tie!" She screamed at them both, slightly annoyed that they both inherited their father's lack of understanding of the idea of 'giving up'

"Soo... much.. YOUTH!" Guy yelled, throwing his hands up in the air at the same time.

"Youth?" Tsunade chuckled to herself "this is like deja vu"

* * *

Naruto sat behind his desk, as the four Jonin Shikamaru had assembled filed into the room. This wasn't exactly the team he had hoped for, but there was nothing her could do on such short notice. Naruto laid out the four messages on his desk.

"Deliver these directly into the hands of the Kages" The Hokage instructed, while pointing to the scrolls.

"And if we run into any difficulties?" Yuudai asked, while holding his scroll.

"Destroy the message at all cost" Shikamaru instructed, and Naruto felt his stomach sink.

"What village am I going to?" Rokuro question, in a very lazy tone.

Naruto leaned forward in his chair, and read off the instructions:

"Rokuro, your going to the Village Hidden in the Stone"

"Yuudai, your going to the Village Hidden in the Mist. Be extra cautious, and look for anything suspicious on the way"

"Kaede, Your going to the Village Hidden in the Sand"

"Mirai, Your going to the Village Hidden in the Cloud"

Naruto handed out a message scroll to each of the four messengers, after sealing each with the Five Kage Sealing Jutsu for extra safety.

"What exactly am I looking for?" Yuudai inquired.

Naruto handed him the briefing folder on The Fighters for a Unified World.

"Why do I have to go all the way to the Stone?" Rokuro whined, and Naruto glared at him causing him to apologize immediately "Sorry, sir"

"Everyone except Yuudai, is dispatched" Shikamaru waved, and the three Jonin dispersed.

"This is some... heavy shit" Yuudai looked up from the folder "excuse my language"

"Forget it" Naruto waved off the disrespect "There's also this" The Hokage then gave Yuudai the folder on the Water Lord's capture, and death.

"So, you want me to be on the lookout for these 'Fighters for a Unified World' or whatever?" Yuudai had lit a cigar, something Naruto hated... but seeing as how he was asking the guy to take on a deadly mission at the moment, he decided to ignore it. .

"Yes, we believe they're active in the area" Shikamaru took the folders back.

"Got it" Yuudai confirmed, before leaving the room.

"So, now we sit and wait?" Naruto asked, rhetorically.

"Yea, we sit and wait" Shikamaru sat down in the chair opposite Naruto's desk.

* * *

**Dunno why I'm on an original characters kick... oh well**

**Also, I'll get back to the fluffy, happy stuff soon... I promise **


	9. The Messengers & The Infiltrators

**Adam is a broken boy... Third chapter in two days**

**Adam is a broken boy... **

* * *

Yuudai was used to this sort of mission, in fact, he longed for it. Not that peace was a bad thing, but it was boring. The old Anbu missed the excitement of a dangerous win all or lose all mission.

It had been about a day since he had set out, and he found himself about halfway to the Village Hidden in the Mist. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary so far, but that usually meant that something was. After a few hours of walking along the road, Yuudai reached a port village. From here, he would have to charter a boat to take him to the Land of Water.

Even though the world was at peace, people still stared at the man, dressed in a green Leaf Village Flak Jacket. Inter-nation travel wasn't unusual, but it was still rare to see other nation's ninjas walking about. Yuudai found a boat house, and went to speak to the attendant.

"Hello, I need to charter a boat"

"Papers?" The attendant asked, while looking Yuudai over with suspicion.

Yuudai furnished his International Passport for the man, along with his letter of introduction from the Hokage.

"One second" The attendant picked up a blue phone. "Orange"

_Orange? _It took Yuudai less than a second to realize what was happening, he blocked the Kunai thrown at this back immediately. This was when he started to regret taking the official route... he never expected that the organization would have infiltrated so far into the Land of Water already.

"Well, I wanted a good mission" The old-man scoffed to himself, while looking over the 8 ninja now surrounding him. He couldn't identify what villages they might be from, odds are they were various rouges from other nations.

A sword came swinging at his face, he ducked and stabbed the attacker with a kunai, then he used the swordsman as a human shield to block the Shuriken being thrown at him.

"Hand over the message!" One of the rouges yelled.

"Like Hell" Yuudai smirked, this was more fun than he had had in a while. _Earth-Style: Rock Pillar _The old ninja clasped his hands forming a 'snake' seal, causing a giant pillar of earth to erupt beneath his feat. The fighters then began to scale the pillar, much to Yuudai's amusement. _Amateurs _He thought to himself, while forming the seals for his next attack. _Earth-Style: Avalanche _Rocks on the face of the pillar began to crumble, knocking off the attackers and crushing them in the process.

Yuudai collected his papers from the attendant's booth, and took the keys to one of the boats. Nothing could ever been as easy as it seemed, could it?

* * *

"So, that's it then" Naruto asked, while kicking his feet up on his desk.

"That's it" Sasuke stood up from his chair. "There are multiple cells, operating under a loose control by a group of powerful individuals"

"Kaede should be reaching the Sand Village soon" Shikamaru stood up too "We wont be able to have a real discussion until the next scheduled Kage Summit"

"Which is?" Naruto pulled his feet off his desk, he had entirely forgotten there was a scheduled summit soon.

"A month from now, in the Hidden Cloud" Shikamaru paused. "We have to be careful, if you're going to leave the village"

"Kakashi-Sensei can act in my place, I'll leave a clone behind too" Naruto placed his hands on his desk, thinking about what else he had to consider.

"What are we planned to be meeting to discuss?"

"The next Chunnin Exams" His adviser reminded him.

"Okay" Naruto paused "Let me know when Kaede reaches his destination"

* * *

Konohamaru was rather impressed when he arrived at the clearing site the next morning, to see his students already hard at work.

"38!" Bolt shouted, and then looked at Sarada with a grin.

The Jonin watched as his student's continued to play a game of 'one ups-man ship'.

"41!" Sarada declared after punching through three trees.

Konohamaru's attention then turned to the ANBU member he had assigned to Bolt, who was currently standing beside a rock.

"You can go rest, I've got this" The Jonin instructed his subordinate, he could tell from his body language that the guy had gone without sleep a little too long.

"Yes, sir" The rabbit masked man nodded, and then vanished.

"So? How many trees have we knocked down?" Konohamaru asked his students.

"29!" Guy yelled, while slamming an axe into a tree.

"Air Gun!" Bolt cut down a few more trees, and then answered "47!" with a grin.

"Hmph!" Sarada pouted for a second, and then threw a barrage of punches "48!"

Math wasn't exactly Konohamaru's strong suit, which was made worse by the large and uneven numbers his students had given him.

"122 Trees then?" The Jonin asked, hoping he was right.

"124 actually, Sensei" Sarada corrected him, before wiping out another five or so.

"I got 114?" Guy was scratching his head.

"It wasn't 142?" Bolt asked.

"No!" Sarada yelled.

"Then how many more do we have to go?" Bolt questioned, before slicing up another six or so with his Air Gun.

"Well, 500 minus 124 is...? Konohamaru was really bad at math.

"376 to go" Sarada then punched down a tree "375, actually"

Konohamaru sat down and watched as his students chipped away at that obscenely large number for the rest of the day.

* * *

Kaede had just crossed the border into the Land of Wind. This was his first S-Ranked mission, and he was intent on not messing it up. He realized of course, that messing up, could mean his death. He had been so excited when he was promoted to Jonin, of course, His mother was worried sick and his father couldn't have been more proud of him. He felt that sense of pride welling up inside him more and more, as he continued the mission.

It took him about another hour to reach the Gate of the Hidden Sand Village, he had never actually been to another Hidden Village before. There was a Sand Ninja standing guard outside the gate.

"I have a message for Lord Kazekage!" Kaede announced as he approached the guard.

"From whom?" Was the reply

"Lord Hokage"

"I can take it" The guard held out his hand, and Kaede reached for the scroll in his back pocket. Suddenly he realized the error he was about to make.

"I've been ordered to deliver it directly" Kaede was worried about what could happen next.

"Okay" The guard waved him towards the gate, Kaede approached with caution, something felt off, he couldn't figure out exactly what it was though.

"Thank you for your under-" The young-Jonin gagged as a Kunai was jammed into his stomach, he hadn't even seen the knife.

"I'll be taking that message now" The guard grinned as he reached into Kaede's back pocket. In that moment Kaede learned two lessons he promised himself never to forget.

1\. Never trust anyone.

2\. Never reveal anything you don't have to.

Kaede grabbed a Kunai from the dispenser on his leg, and used it to slit the guard's throat. However, he had started to lose too much blood already and could feel his consciousness fading. He tried to destroy the message, but passed out before he was able to.

* * *

Shikadai was thrilled with his current situation, both his mother and father were too busy to pay attention to him, and his Sensei was nowhere to be found. Meaning, that he could waste the whole day doing whatever it was he pleased. So, he decided to take a nap on the bench outside the Academy... this lasted all of ten minutes.

"Shikadai" Inojin was shaking him "We have a mission!"

"What? Why?" The young-Nara rolled over on his side, facing away from his teammate.

"We've been ordered to assist Lord Sixth with his grocery shopping" Inojin responded.

"Grocery Shopping?" Shikadai sat up on the bench "How is that exactly a mission?"

"I have a long list" The Sixth Hokage was now standing in front of the two, holding a list with about a hundred items on it.

"Why sir?" Inojin asked.

"Buying in bulk is cheaper" The former Hokage smiled.

So, that's how Shikadai found himself rummaging the Leaf Market for everything from fruits and vegetables to even toilet paper... which didn't even qualify as a grocery item. Also, there was something weird about buying a former Hokage's toilet paper...

* * *

Gaara was sitting in his office, reading over mission reports, when a ninja ran into his office in a complete panic.

"Lord Kazekage!" The man was panting, and holding a scroll and a letter.

"What's the matter?" Gaara asked, while reaching for the items. Two things struck him immediately; one, they were covered in blood and two, they were S-Class documents.

"We found a Leaf Ninja holding these documents" The ninja was now standing at attention.

"Is he dead?" Gaara asked, worried about what the documents could contain.

"He's in critical condition... but we believe there was an altercation with our guard on duty"

"Who attacked first?" Gaara was picking up the secure phone on his desk, and had started dialing numbers.

"We believe it was our guard, sir" The ninja paused "We think he stabbed the Leaf Messenger from a close range"

Gaara started to unseal the message, while holding the phone to his ear with his shoulder.

"Dismissed" The Kazekage nodded towards the ninja "Get me Kankuro, and then get a secured line to the Hokage"

"Yes, Sir" The voice on the phone replied.

Gaara sat and read the message, in utter shock. He had heard about the Lord of the Land of Water's capture, but he hadn't expected it to involve so much complexity. In this moment, it dawned on him that there was a possibility that the guard had been an accomplice to these 'fighters for a unified world', and that his own forces had already been infiltrated.

"What is it?" Kankuro entered the room, and Gaara handed him the message.

After a few minutes of reading, it seemed that Kankuro had come to the same conclusion. Gaara picked up the phone.

"Naruto?" He asked.

"Did you receive our message?" Gaara felt a sense of guilt welling up in him, as he now had to inform his friend that one of his people might die.

"Yes, but I have disturbing news" Gaara took a deep breath. "The messenger you sent, was attacked by one of my guards... he's in critical condition".

There was a silence on the line, Gaara couldn't tell Naruto directly that there had been an infiltration, in case the phone line had been tapped. He hoped that Shikamaru would be able to piece the situation together.

"I understand" Was the Hokage's only response.

"I apologize, we will do everything we can to punish this incompetent guard and help your messenger" This line was a complete red-herring, which Gaara hoped would throw any phone tappers off the trail.

"Thank you" Naruto hung up the phone, and Gaara began to draft a proper return message.

* * *

It was around 4:30 in the afternoon, when Konohamaru opened his eyes to find his students had stopped working. Bolt was lying on the group, completely exhausted, and Sarada was resting up against a tree.

"145" Bolt panted, a slight smile crossing his face.

"146!" Sarada had a much larger smile on her face.

"110" Guy was sitting up against a tree, with the axe still in his hands.

"That makes...Well uh, you carry the-" Konohamaru really should've paid more attention in the academy.

"401, Sensei" Sarada gasped, seemingly half laughing.

"99 to go" Guy stood back up.

"That's enough for today" The Jonin smiled at his students "You did a really good job, I'm proud of you all"

Bolt attempted to sit up, but fell right back down again "Thanks, Sensei"

* * *

Shikadai had just finished lugging all of the Sixth Hokage's groceries into his home, when he realized that Chocho had decided to eat half the snacks they had bought.

"What the?" The young-Nara seriously didn't want to go through the trouble of shopping again.

"I was hungry!" The young-Akamichi complained "What was I supposed to do?"

"It's quite alright" The former Hokage was handing Chocho a bag of chips "I had too much stuff anyways"

It was at this point, that Shikadai sensed his father's chakra. About a minute later, his dad had arrived, flanked by two Ninja in standard Leaf combat attire.

"Lord Sixth" Shikadai watched as his father bowed to the Elder Hokage.

"You need something, Shikamaru?" Shikadai looked up at the Former Hokage, and noticed there was a sense of... tension in the air that the young-Nara couldn't quite describe.

"Lord Seventh requests your Counsel, at once" Shikadai watched as a purple folder exchanged hands between his father and the Former Hokage. What exactly was going on in this village? First, there was the lock down and now the Current Hokage was asking the Former for help? Whatever it was, Shikadai concluded that it couldn't be a good thing.

"Right" The Elder Hokage sighed, and walked off. The two Ninja followed close behind him.

"What's going on Dad?" Shikadai asked, knowing that he probably wouldn't get an answer.

"Ya, What's goin' on Mr. N?" Chocho mumbled, while shoving chips into her mouth.

"Nothing you need to concern yourselves with." His father was looking up at the Stone Faces, which made Shikadai feel worried. His dad had that look he gets when he is thinking about something serious.

* * *

Naruto had moved to the meeting room near his office, he sat at the head of the conference table. To his left, was Sasuke and to his right was Shikamaru. Across the table from him was Kakashi-sensei. Ino, and Kiba filled in the other two seats at the table.

"So..." Kakashi slid the folder across the table to Naruto "There's a chance every nation has already been infiltrated to some degree"

"It would seem that way" Shikamaru leaned back in his chair. "We'll have to do a purge of our entire ranks"

"That will take some time" Ino protested "I'd first have to clear the Intel Department by myself, and then take on others"

"We'll have to start with people critical to our security, and work our way down the line" Kiba proposed.

"What if they've infiltrated into the ANBU? We can't just let anyone search their memories" Kakashi was shaking his head.

"I'd have to do it personally" Ino rested her face in her hands "I'll have to work around the clock"

"Wait... Then isn't it possible that..." A serious problem had just dawned on Naruto, something he now made him feel sick.

"God... one of the messengers?" Shikamaru had stood up.

"Rokuro, would be the only possibility" Naruto now had his face buried in his hands as well.

"Mirai, and Kaede are obviously clear, and Yuudai has been around too long" Shikamaru was now pacing.

"But, who do we send to track him down?" Ino looked up "I can't clear someone fast enough"

Naruto exhaled sharply, completely unsure of how to proceed. He weighed every option in his head.

"Get Shino" Naruto stood up. "He's an excellent tracker, and about the only trustworthy person I can spare to send right now"

"I'll get to work on clearing peop-" Ino stopped talking, when she noticed Kiba had stood up suddenly... causing the chair to go flying into the wall.

"What are you-" Naruto didn't understand what had just sent Kiba off the rail, until the man started yelling.

"Konohamaru! Damnit pick up!" The Security Head was yelling into his earpiece.

"What's wrong?" Ino screamed.

"Damnit, pick up!" Kiba turned and looked at the group "The guys guarding Bolt, Hinata and Himawari"

Naruto's head was spinning. They might target his family!? He attempted to teleport to Bolt, only find his marking had been sealed.

"I cant get to Bolt!" Naruto yelled, while running for the door.

"Konohamaru will get him!" Kiba shouted "Get to Hinata!"

Naruto teleported home, there were way too many markings in his house, for them to all be sealed.

* * *

"What's happening?" Konohamaru shouted into his earpiece, he was on his way home, having left his students behind at the mission site.

"Bolt's not safe!" Kiba was yelling into the Jonin's earpiece.

"I left him wit-" Konohamaru was cut off.

"Infiltration! Just go!" The Jonin teacher felt his stomach sink, and his adrenaline hit a new high, he darted back to the mission site as fast as he could... only to find Guy, knocked out on the ground... under heavy Genjustu.

It took 30 seconds to break the Genjutsu and another 15 to get Guy to start talking.

"What happened?" Konohamaru asked frantically

"I felt really tired... and then Mr. Rabbit hit me over the head and grabbed Bolt and Sarada" Guy was still out of it.

"Okay" Konohamaru made as many shadow clones as he could muster, and started to pray.

* * *

**Did I just start a kidnapping? You bet I did!**


End file.
